You've Kept Me Waiting
by Shadows.Dance
Summary: Such a pure and different love they shared, two halves of the same whole, not complete unless they were with each other...Alice and Jasper's first two years together, starting from the day they meet to when the met the Cullens for the first time.
1. Meeting

_A/N: Hello all, thanks for checking out my story. Hope you enjoy it!_

_Synopsis: Alice and Jasper's first two years together as they fall in love and search for the Cullens together._

_****_

Alice stood in front of her small closet in the hotel room she was staying at, trying to find something to wear for the day. She wished she could get a vision to know what she would wear. Would he be coming today, so therefore she should wear the dress she had seen herself wearing when they met, or would it not happen today? Pondering her dress choices, she lightly touched all of the fabrics. Taffeta, faille, moire, all so lovely.

A vision pushed it's way into her mind, and Alice had the same vision she had been having over and over again yet again. But this time, it held so much clarity in it, that she knew that it had to be today.

_She hopped off of the stool and danced over to the other vampire. He tensed, as if for a fight. "You've kept me waiting a long time." She admonished only slightly teasing._

_He ducked his head. "..._

Alice growled as the vision ended. "Just like always." She grumbled to herself, but she wasn't really angry, not knowing that they would finally meet today. Alice grinned as she took down her bright yellow taffeta dress. It had a low neckline, with a full skirt. Gazing at it lovingly, Alice swiftly put it on before glancing out the window. She already knew that it would be rainy, and simply looked out of instinct. She grabbed a coat off the hanger, and headed out the door, all primped for the day.

It was 5:50 in the morning, and only a few people were out, but the small diner would be open at 6, and it took ten minutes when she walked at a human pace. Under normal circumstances, Alice wasn't impatient, but knowing you would meet the love of your life that day sometimes made you a bit impatient, so she hurried a bit faster than necessary.

She had hunted that night, and her eyes were a bright butterscotch. _I hope I don't scare him away with my gold eyes, _Alice thought to herself, worrying needlessly because she already knew how it would turn out, eventually.

As she turned the corner to get to 'Betty's Diner- The Best in all of Philadelphia' she already saw Bill, the cook, opening the door. He looked up, expecting her because she had been there for the past 3 weeks, except for the sunny days, and smiled. He was the only one that had really warmed up to her, probably because of the natural instinct most humans had to avoiding creatures like her.

"Good Morning, Alice" He said brightly.

"Very." Alice agreed.

"Is whoever your waiting for coming today?" He joked.

Alice grinned (not showing all of her teeth, she didn't want to scare him) "Yep," Noticing his confused face, she added, "I can feel it."

He hurried her inside (it looked like rain) and nodded. "Good luck then, I hope he's worth it for you to be waiting for so long."

"He is." She sat in the same seat that she had been sitting in for the past three weeks and took the coffee and doughnut he had offered her, pretenses, her human charade. It started drizzling outside quietly as Bill hummed, cleaning the kitchen in the back. Betty was in her office, but she would be leaving at 9 to go check up on her kids and get them to school. Mary came in an hour later and avoided catching Alice's eye, the only one of the employees who was completely scared of having Alice there. She had once gossiped to another waitress that "It feels like, I don't know, like she's goin' to eat me or somethin'." Alice had chuckled quietly into her coffee.

The hours passed, and the rain had worsened before stopping. At three, Betty and Dorothy came in, chatting and laughing. All of the employees were like a family there. "Good Afternoon, Alice." Dorothy told her, waving.

"Isn't it?" Alice said, nodding in there direction. The rain started up again, and an old couple came in. Alice turned her head toward them, even though she knew it wasn't him. They smelled just like every other human there.

Others came and went, and a little later, a boyfriend and girlfriend came in. As they sat down and ordered something to eat from Dorothy, Alice was struck with a vision. The boy was getting down on one knee, and the girl was staring at him with wide eyes before jumping into his arms in glee. Alice smiled softly. It wasn't happening today, but soon.

They smiled at each other of their dinner, and Alice felt an unreasonable pang of jealousy of the couple. She hoped that eventually that would be her and Jasper.

A family sat in the corner, the mother and father looking harassed with their two children as the little girl refused to eat her green beans, and the boy who was antsy in his seat and wouldn't stop fidgeting. Just then, as the storm picked up even more harshly, the door opened, and the bell tinkled. the harsh wind blew his scent toward her. Alice's head shot up and she looked over to him.

He was eyeing the room warily, his eyes black as coals. He was holding his breath, but seemed to know what she was, and was suddenly even more tense. He was _here_, and even more beautiful than she had imagined.

She hopped off of the stool and danced over to the other vampire. He tensed, as if for a fight. "You've kept me waiting a long time."

He ducked his head. "I'm sorry ma'am." Jasper said in a low voice, and Alice, though trying to be angry, couldn't stop the grin that split across her face. Alice held out her hand, and in an instant, he took it, and she led him out of the diner and onto the start of the rest of their lives, Bill the cook staring after them the entire time.

Alice continued to swing her free hand as she pulled Jasper along. "Excuse me, ma'am, but, may I ask where we are going."

"Call me Alice, Jasper."

Jasper looked shocked. "How do you know my name?"

"I know a lot about you, Jasper Whitlock." She said mysteriously. "I know you used to travel with Peter and Charlotte, and that you left them a few years back, and I also knew you were going to be meeting me in that diner today, though I had to wait for three weeks to be sure. But," Alice hesitated, afraid this would scare him off. "I've been looking for you since 1920 when I...when I wasn't quite as civilized, I suppose."

"But...How?" Jasper stared at her, and she saw a possible future, he was thinking about bolting.

"Wait! Please don't go! I have been waiting a long time. I can see that future if you leave, and I really don't want you to go." Alice begged, and Jasper's eyes softened.

"I know what it's like to be different, even around vampires. I can sense and manipulate emotions." He murmured, looking away.

Alice gasped. "Really?"

Jasper nodded. "Yes, you're feeling happy, smug, a bit upset still and...well, truthfully, I haven't figured out the last feeling. Like, adoration, and caring, and lust, but all mixed into one."

Alice thought about it for a minute before realizing what it was. "That's love." She told him.

"Love? Hm, so, what do _you _love?"

If she could have, Alice would've blushed. "Nothing, I'll tell you another time." She had already freaked him out enough for the night, she didn't need to tell Jasper that it was _him _that she loved. Not yet, at least.

"So...you never answered my first question. Where are we going?"

"The forest, you need to hunt." Alice explained.

Jasper grimaced at the idea. "Some stray hunters? Alice, I'm really fine, don't worry—"

"Not humans." She told him.

Jasper paused and stared at her. "Not...humans? Then what?"

"Did you notice my golden eyes?" She asked him, Jasper nodded. "Animals."

Jasper crinkled his nose, and Alice looked away as soon as she had thoughts about how beautiful he looked, much more so than her. "Animals?" He asked, dubious, and Alice nodded in confirmation. "They don't taste as good as humans do, but it's nice to know I'm not killing somebody that could have a family waiting for them at home."

Jasper closed his eyes. "I'll try. It would be nice..." He trailed off, and Alice didn't press him. She pulled him to the edge of the forest and told him, "It's really just like hunting humans, well, kind of. Come on."

They ran through the forest then, and after Alice caught a deer, Jasper followed suit. He sucked it dry, before turning to Alice. "Nothing." He mused to himself quietly. "Does it ever get better? The taste, I mean."

Alice threw her arms around him then, knowing what that meant, he was planning on staying with her. "Oh Jasper! You're staying?"

He tensed up before relaxing as they held that position. "Aren't you the physic, wouldn't you know?" He teased. Alice just smiled brightly, and he returned it with a small one of his own.

"Don't worry, you'll get used to it." She whispered to him.

"Alice, where are you taking me now?" Jasper asked after they had hunted.

"To my hotel room, silly."

Jasper gasped. "You...stay around humans? How? For how long?"

"I've been trying to drink animal blood since I was created in 1920, so I've had a lot of practice. It's not _quite _as enticing as before."

"So you've never had human blood?" Jasper asked, incredulous.

"Well, I wouldn't say that." Alice whispered, and Jasper felt the shame that she was feeling as if it was his own.

"It's just part of your nature, Alice. Don't worry." How strange it was that he was comforting a vampire he had met not 5 hours previous, Jasper thought to himself.

The two of them ran as far as they could before getting to civilization, where Alice slowed the two of them down to a walk. A comfortable silence fell over the couple as Alice led the way to the hotel. "It's going to be sunny tomorrow." Alice said, breaking the silence. "We're going to need to stay inside."

Jasper looked up toward the sky, as if the sun would come out at that moment, but the rain only continued to fall on his face. "The rain dilutes their smell a bit." He said, mainly to himself.

They arrived at the hotel, and Alice nodded to the doorman before hurrying up to her room with Jasper. As she unlocked the door to her room on the fourth floor, Jasper looked around, surveilling the premises. "Come in." Alice gestured for him to follow her. She sat on the bed, and he looked around before leaning against the wall. Alice's breath was again taken away by his beauty.

"May I ask about your past, Alice?" Jasper asked her slowly.

"You may," Alice giggled quietly before becoming somber. "But I'll only be able to tell you about my life as a vampire. I don't remember my human life. In fact, I didn't even know I used to be human until 10 years ago when I met another vampire."

"You don't remember your past?"

Alice shook her head, and Jasper felt her upset emotions rolling off of her, though she didn't show it. He sent her a wave a peace and happiness, and her head shot up to stare at him. Jasper shrugged innocently. "I told you I could manipulate emotions." As if to prove his point, he gave her a large dose of humor, and Alice started cracking up. Eventually he calmed her down again, and Alice regained her composure.

"Can I ask about _your _past? I never saw anything. Only your face, and occasionally you with Peter and Charlotte."

"I have a...complicated past, Alice. I'm, I'm enjoying my time with you, and I'm afraid that if I tell you now, you'll send me away." Jasper whispered, though she could hear it with perfect clarity.

"I could never. Jasper Whitlock, I have been searching for you my entire existence, nothing short of finding out _you _were Hitler could send me away."

"Practically." He said with self-hatred. "I've killed more than you would believe."

"I promise you that I won't leave."

Jasper sighed. "Alright. I was changed in 1863 by a vampire named Maria. I was a major in the confederate army at that time, despite the fact that I was only twenty. She changed me to aid in her own vampire army. You've heard of the vampire wars of the South, correct?" Alice nodded. "I was one of them. I fought and killed many, vampires and humans alike." Jasper continued to tell Alice his entire past, the parts that made him cringe, and the ones that he outright wished he could simply forget. The night went on, and when the sun started rising the next morning, Alice simply got up and closed the curtains before they continued to talk. The spoke of everything, and yet nothing. After Jasper finished telling his past, they went back to hers, and then to her diet, the future, and Jasper discovered that Alice had a soft spot for fashion, but could never keep much because she was always traveling.

The day continued, and after they ran out of things to talk about, they simply sat in silence and enjoyed each others company as though they had known each other for years rather than one short day.

At 8 o'clock that evening. Alice got up and started searching through her clothes, searching for something new to wear.

"Are we going somewhere?" Jasper asked from the chair where he had been sitting. He hadn't sat with her on the bed because he claimed it was improper ("Still a southern gentleman at heart." Alice had said.)

"We need to integrate you with the humans, so you can eventually be able to walk with them and talk with them and not think of them as food." Alice smiled wryly before lightly taking a dark navy blue number off of her hanger. "I'm going to take a shower." She told him. Jasper looked away as she headed into the bathroom and the water started running.

Jasper thought of his growing thirst once before grabbing a piece of paper and quickly writing on it:

Alice,

I've gone hunting. Don't worry, I'll be back soon. You probably already saw me going anyway, but just in case, I'll leave this for you. Where shall you be taking me first?

Jasper

Jasper left it lying on the bed and headed out the door and down to the lobby. He hurried to the forest, and smelled the air once he got there. No sign of any humans. Crouching low, he sniffed again for the scent of an anima—there it was! The repulsing smell that also signified his saving grace. No more depression of facing a human's last emotions in life. The horror and pain and sadness.

He raced for the smell where a herd of deer were. He caught two before catching the scent of a slightly more appetizing smell. He hurried toward it, where a bear was lumbering through the forest. He latched onto it's neck, while the bear threw it's head back, roaring. There was a wrestle, before Jasper took it down, sucking it dry. He felt full then, though the thirst itself was not nearly satiated. He ran all the way to the city, where he walked at a pace a bit to quickly for a human to get back to Alice.

When he arrived at the hotel, Alice was pacing in the lobby, worry and nervousness coming off of her in waves, so much so that she didn't even notice him approach in the loud room. Not until he channeled a wave of calm toward her and her head snapped up. Alice threw her arms around him again when he got near. "Oh, I was so worried, what if there was a hunter or a lost hiker? I thought to myself or what if he's hunting humans? Or—"

"Shh." Jasper murmured to her. "Don't worry. I didn't want you to get that pretty little dress dirty taking care of me."

"Well, I feel better knowing you're with me." Alice grumbled.

Jasper laughed, and Alice marveled at the sound. "So where were you thinking of going?"

Alice grinned in an almost evil way, if evil could ever be applied to her. "Shopping." She eyed him then. "You need a new outfit, how long have you been wearing that?" She questioned, her nose wrinkled in disgust in a way that Jasper found quite cute. Realizing he was staring, Jasper instead glanced at his own clothes. Dusty corduroy jeans and an old, red plaid shirt.

Alice shook her head before dragging him out. Walking by all of the small shops and boutiques surrounding them, Alice 'oohed' and 'aahed' at all of the clothes, but with little money, she could only buy a couple things, and for once, only bought one thing for herself (a pair of pretty lacy gloves), while getting him two new shirts and a pair of pants.

Jasper feigned boredom and nonchalance, but really he was happy to be around Alice as she moved from store to store happily. They spent a good part of the night shopping until every store was closed and they decided to head back to the hotel, having nothing else to do.

"Alice," Jasper started.

"Hm?"

"You are the best thing to ever happen in my life. I never imagined I could ever be this happy after a past like mine. I must have been truly lucky to meet you, yesterday."

"Jasper Whitlock, you are the best thing to ever happen to me, I want you to know that." They stared into each others eyes, and somehow, even though they had met _yesterday_, there eyes conveyed what words could not.

_You are my life now. I love you._

_So, what do you think so far? I'm going to keep continuing it if I can, but I don't know till when in the story._

_Disclaimer: I own none of the characters from the book Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, they both are not mine._


	2. The Human

Alice hummed quietly to herself as she went through her closet in the hotel room. Jasper had gone out—they had got into a small argument—he had been talking about trying to settle down in a house and wait out the Cullens until they got concrete proof of where they were, instead of living hotel to hotel, especially with their money running kind of low. They had enough for a little longer, but not if they kept it up at the pace they were going at.

Alice was against it, sure that if they settled down, Jasper might not want to go to the Cullens later on. A vision pulled at her mind, and Alice quickly submerged herself into it, glad to not think about their fight for a few moments.

_"Alice, this is Peter and Charlotte. Peter and Charlotte, Alice." Jasper smiled, glad to be with his two friends again. "You'll never guess how I met _this _little one. She's a strange one." He smiled affectionately at the pixie-like girl._

_Peter watched Jasper, while Charlotte, still slightly wary of Alice, nodded in the smaller girl's direction._

_"Nice to meet you, Alice." She said._

_"It's nice to know that Jasper here isn't all alone." Peter agreed._

Alice squealed, knowing it would happen relatively soon. She rushed to the door to go find Jasper, her clothes abandoned, but he was standing in the doorway, about to come in, flowers in his hand. "I heard this was how a human man was supposed to apologize to a girl, so I decided to try." He said, looking at her hopefully.

"Thank you, Jasper. There's nothing to forgive though, it was partially my fault, too. You'll never guess what, though. We're going to see Peter and Charlotte. I can't wait to meet them!" Alice smiled brightly, while Jasper, happy but a bit worried gave her a smaller smile of his own.

"Where, do you know?"

Alice thought back to her vision. "It was night, but I saw a sign for a play on May 16th, so that's probably the date, or sometime around there. Think we could trace it?" She asked excitedly.

"Depends. Did you get a look at the name of the play?"

"Great Expectations."

"As in the book?" Jasper asked her, confused.

"Yeah. I'm surprised you got that."

Jasper smirked. "I have read the book, though I confess I skipped through a lot. Okay, well, I really just skimmed it, but I remember the basic plot. Kid gets money, and has great expectations of him, etc. etc. so we'll just try to find where the play _Great Expectations _is going to be showing on May 16th. Can't be too hard."

Jasper sighed and fell back onto the bed dejectedly. "Correction, it _can _be too hard." It was currently May 15th, and they had yet to find a place that would be showing the play the next day.

"Maybe it was a vision of next year." Jasper told Alice, trying to give her some hope.

"Yeah, maybe." Alice said miserably.

"Don't worry, Alice, you'll get to meet them eventually." Jasper tried to sooth her. Key word, _tried._

"But I was so hoping that I would finally get to meet them tomorrow!" Jasper chuckled at the fact that Alice was whining like a child that didn't get their way.

"We'll see them eventually." Jasper reassured her. The rest of the day passed in dejected silence as Alice almost moped around, Jasper occasionally tried to cheer her up, but she always pushed him back. "Why are you so upset anyway? You've never even met them." Jasper asked later on that night.

Alice looked away, and Jasper felt her embarrassment at the answer. "Well, I was just...hoping that they would _approve of me..."_ Alice mumbled the last part, but Jasper still caught it.

"Only that? Silly Alice, even if they hated you, which would be impossible, little pixie, I wouldn't care."

"Yes, but wouldn't you be happier if they did?" Alice insisted.

Jasper shrugged. "I suppose, but it doesn't really matter."

As the morning of May 16th dawned, Alice was getting ready for the day. She primped and attempted to do her hair before it became blatantly obvious that her hair wouldn't do anything else. She slipped on the black dress she had seen herself wearing, hoping against hope that they would see Peter and Charlotte anyway.

Alice glanced out the window, only to see the sun shining back. she quickly closed the curtain before sighing and sitting down on the bed. "So, I was thinking," She started. "I know you were talking about moving into a house, and I didn't want to, but maybe if we rented an apartment or something...I don't know, it wouldn't be that bad. I just don't want to get too attached and when we finally find out where the Cullens are, decide 'Hey, let's just stay here instead.'"

"Is that why you didn't want to buy a house? Of course I'll go with you to the Cullens if we find an proof of where they are, but I think that until then, we should try to settle down." Jasper said as he came out of the bathroom, rolling up his second arm sleeve.

"Sweetie, that's not quite in style yet. Try in a few more years." She told Jasper before he rolled down the sleeves again.

"You were going to make me do that either way, right?" Alice nodded. Jasper shrugged and sat down opposite of her on the bed. "Sunny?" She nodded again. "Bored?" He guessed.

Alice growled and grabbed an old fashion magazine lying on the nightstand, flipping through it angrily. "There's nothing to do! Stupid sun!"

"Tell me more about the Cullens, hmm?" Jasper asked Alice quietly as he sat down next to her.

Alice sat up excitedly. "First there's Carlisle, he's like the father, and he's a _doctor!_ Can you believe it? He actually works in a hospital! Then there's Esme, she's the mother-figure. She's really sweet and caring. Edward, he's a mind reader and Carlisle's oldest companion since 1918. Rosalie, she's beautiful and a bit vain, I don't know her past, just that Carlisle found her on the street. And Emmett, this is amazing, get this, at about 2 years old, Rosalie finds him, covered in blood from being mauled by a bear, and she's gets him all the way to Carlisle to save his life!"

Jasper smiled serenely at her. "You can't wait to finally meet them, huh?" Alice nodded. they passed the time just talking or simply laying there in silence until the sun finally set and evening came. Alice was up almost immediately saying that they should just wander around town.

So the pair went out, window shopping for Alice, and Jasper just watched her and basked in her positive emotions that were slowly becoming a familiar part of his existence. As they wandered into the darker, dirtier side of town, Alice suddenly gasped and pointed to a sign across the street. "Jasper, Jasper look!"

Jasper turned and saw the sign. 'Great Expectations the Play on May 16th' "Looks like we found it." He murmured to Alice.

"But how did you miss it?" Alice was too happy to be truly annoyed.

"Me? I thought you were supposed to look up this theatre."

"I thought...oh well, at least we found it." She sighed happily and pulled him over to where the sign was.

"So are we just supposed to wait here for them?"

Alice shrugged. "I guess, unless you have a better idea." Jasper shook his head, so she eyed the sidewalk before moving to sit down. Jasper whipped his coat off and laid it down on the ground so she didn't have to sit down on the dirty sidewalk, knowing how much she liked the dress. Alice glanced up at him and smiled as he sat down next to her.

They only had to wait half an hour before Jasper spotted his two old companions moving through the streets. "Peter! Charlotte!" He only called to them once, knowing they would hear. they both turned toward where his voice was, and quickly saw his head above the crowd. Charlotte's face lit up as Peter waved to him, the couple making there way of to Jasper.

"Hello Jasper, how have you been?" Peter asked when they were finally standing close enough.

Jasper grinned. "A lot better. How about you two?"

Peter noticed Alice then, and after realizing she was a vampire, smiled at her. "Hello, who are you?"

"Alice, this is Peter and Charlotte. Peter and Charlotte, Alice." Jasper smiled, glad to be with his two friends again. "You'll never guess how I met this little one. She's a strange one." He smiled affectionately at the pixie-like girl.

Peter watched Jasper, while Charlotte, still slightly wary of Alice, nodded in the smaller girl's direction.

"Nice to meet you, Alice." She said.

"It's nice to know that Jasper here isn't all alone." Peter agreed.

"So how long have you two been traveling together?" Charlotte asked politely.

"A couple months." Alice chimed, glancing up at Jasper.

Peter and Charlotte gasped in unison. "So short?" Charlotte asked, now even more wary of the pixie.

Alice nodded while Jasper said, "She's fine, you guys. Don't worry." slightly defensive.

"It;s a pleasure to meet you both." Alice told them sincerely. "Jasper has spoke highly of both of you."

"Has he?" Peter said, chuckling as he watched Alice. "So may I ask about the...um, eyes?"

Alice's tinkling laugh made all three of the other vampires watch her in wonder. "I don't hunt humans." She told him, too quietly for a human to hear her.

"Then what?" Peter asked, shocked.

"Why, animals." Alice said, smiling warmly at him.

"Is this true, Jasper?" Peter asked his friend, and Jasper nodded.

"Yes it is, this little one has showed me a whole new way of life that I never knew about before."

"But they can't taste good, can they?" Charlotte asked, curious but repulsed.

Alice shrugged. "Not as good as a human, but it satiates the thirst, so I can't complain."

"And Jasper, you follow this...diet too, I presume?" Peter asked.

"That I do."

"How do you feel now?"

"Better than I have in a long while, Peter. This small one has made all the difference." The four continued talking until Charlotte reminded Peter of why they had come into town in the first place.

"We need to hunt, I hope you don't mind." Peter told them, laughing

Jasper watched Alice, wanting to see how she would react. Try to convert them to animal blood, like she had with him? "That's fine, go on ahead. But please try to be careful around here, we don't want the humans to become suspicious of us. If you're planning on staying a little longer, please come stop by our hotel room." She quickly told them the address before Peter and Charlotte were off, promising to stop by one more time before they left.

"That was nice." Jasper said loftily, and Alice nodded in agreement. "It was, wasn't it? It was so nice to meet them finally."

"So about that apartment..." Jasper trailed off, smiling down at her.

Alice leaned against him, and Jasper wrapped an arm around her. "I was thinking Elkins, West Virginia. How's that sound?"

"We'll probably have to stay in for quite a bit." Jasper warned her.

Alice just shrugged. "It's not like it will make that big a difference in what we do. Besides, I'll be able to tell you when it's going to be sunny."

Jasper smiled affectionately at her, and Alice grinned back. "Elkins, West Virginia it is, then." The two of them wandered around the city happily, glad to have each other to hold and be able to talk to.

Later on, as the clock struck 2 o'clock in the morning, Alice and Jasper finally started heading back to the hotel. The city finally seemed to be asleep for the night, and when they got to their small hotel, the only other person there was the girl at the front desk. She was doing some paperwork quietly as they entered, and the couple only caught her mutter a couple swear words before it happened.

A single drop of blood slipped through the cut, and the two vampires went crazy. Jasper pounced—she didn't even have time to scream—and in a minute, the girl was dead and held not a drop of blood in her. Jasper was staring at his hands. "What did I _do?_" He looked up as Alice placed a hand on his shoulder.

The bright red of his eyes stared at Alice before she looked down at the body again. "I'll move it, you change the record books, make sure they never knew we were here. Just change the name. We payed cash, right?" Jasper only nodded, not able to form words. "Good. They won't be able to trace us." She hoisted the body up like it was nothing and took her out through the back, since no other human was there.

Jasper looked through the record to where they were reserved under his name. He grabbed a pencil and erased his name completely and then re-wrote the first name that came to mind_. _Alice was heading up the stairs at her normal speed, and Jasper followed after. When he got to their room, she was flinging clothes into a bag.

They didn't speak as he loaded his few belongings into the bag too before they rushed out of the building, leaving a DO NOT DISTURB sign hanging on the doorknob to their old hotel room. They ran down the streets, since nobody was out, and headed out of the area.

Alice and Jasper eventually slowed to a walk as they wandered through a forest. Jasper was avoiding her gaze, trying not to think about what he had done. "I'll have to start all over from scratch now." He sighed, and warily tested Alice's emotions. That strange emotion—love—, sadness, and the one that hurt him the most, disappointment. "I'm sorry, Alice. I would understand if you didn't want to travel with me anymore. I know how disappointed you are with me."

"Disappointed with you?" Alice gasped. "If I had kept us out just a few moments longer, it never would have happened, and you wouldn't be looking at yourself in disgust."

"You blame yourself? Oh, Alice, how could you ever think this was your fault? _I'm _the one that just killed an innocent girl."

"Jasper, if you hadn't of done that, I," Alice hesitated. "I would have done the same exact thing. She was _bleeding _Jasper! Any normal vampire would have done that." She tried to soothe him, and surprisingly, it worked. He was still upset, but not to the same degree.

"Thank you, Miss Alice." He said, the Texan accent coming out a bit more. "You don't know how much I appreciate being able to be with you."

Alice smiled brightly at him. "Come on, let's go hunt, then we'll figure this out." Jasper stared at her for a few seconds before nodding and running deeper into the forest silently.

After finishing their early "breakfast" Alice and Jasper headed back to the small clearing where they had left their things before. Alice rummaged through her bag to grab a new dress while Jasper turned away while falling back against a tree. Alice quickly changed behind a tree (Jasper _insisted_) and went to stand beside Jasper, barely grazing his waist in height. "Thank you Alice, really." He said sincerely.

"I hope you weren't planning on moving into that apartment building soon. We should let this blow over a bit, after all, we're staying pretty close. I say we wait about a month or two, and then we try to get it. Maybe stay in a hotel for a little. My hair is going to get so dirty!" Alice sighed, but shrugged, and Jasper could tell that she wasn't really that annoyed.

"You are the best thing to ever happen to me Alice. Only you could be so forgiving." He murmured.

"Well, I don't know about that, Carlisle is very forgiving, too..." She looked up, to see Jasper leaning down toward her. She felt her eyes sliding shut before he bent down and pressed his lips to hers. It was the best moment of her life, hands down. Even beating when they had first met, and she had thought nothing would beat _that _feeling.

In one fourth of a second though, Jasper was on the other side of the field, breaking the kiss. He approached her slowly. "Alice, I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have done that, please forgive me. It was rude."

"Rude?" Alice turned away so he couldn't see her face. "I rather liked it."

"You're not mad?" He asked, surprised.

Alice shook her head and grinned. "Not at all, in fact..." Alice ran to his side and firmly but gently pulled him down to her height, placing a second kiss on his chapped lips. "I think we should try it again." She murmured against him.

_GAH! I always try to write longer chapters, but they always seem to end around the 5-6 pages mark, occasionally 7 if I'm lucky. The story line of the chapter just wraps itself up by then, and I find a good place to stop. So how did you like it? Feedback is love and much appreciated. Hope you enjoyed!_

_Disclaimer: I own nothing, anything Twilight related belongs to Stephenie Meyer._


	3. Elkins

A couple months passed, and September rolled around. Alice and Jasper stayed out of towns for the first month and a half, except when Alice insisted they go in for a quick shopping trip occasionally. Finally, they got back to living in hotels day to day.

They had been staying together for eight months, and were finally moving into the apartment they had been talking about. "I'm so excited!" Alice cried as she carried a box into the living room, as Jasper followed behind with two in his arms, all the things that they had.

Jasper shook his head in amusement. "You're so lovely when your excited and happy." He murmured, and Alice just grinned even more as she grabbed his hand, leading him into their bedroom. Alice set her box down and immediately began taking all of her clothes out and hanging them in the closet that was now all her own, except for a small square that was Jasper's.

The couple didn't have much. Two boxes were of Alice's clothes, and the last one was the few books they owned and a chess set and a few odds and ends. They both loved to play chess, but since Alice always cheated, they hardly ever did. Still, they kept the chess set around anyway. "Oh! Jasper, don't forget to get the radio!" Alice exclaimed, and Jasper nodded.

"Don't worry Alice, I'll go get it now." Jasper head downstairs again, and when he got out front, he found a group of men hanging around the building. They all nodded toward him as he came out, and, biting back the venom that pooled in his mouth, he nodded back too.

"You new here?" One man called, and Jasper nodded.

"You talk?" A second yelled.

Jasper nodded again before deciding to risk opening his mouth to speak. "Hello, my name is Jasper Whitlock, I've just moved in to the apartment on the third floor."

One man, the only one braver enough, obviously, headed over to where Jasper was standing with the radio. "You gonna need some help with that, Jasper?" He asked.

Knowing how strange it would look if he carried it up all by himself, Jasper said. "Well sir, if you wouldn't mind, I'd appreciate it."

"Sure. Name's John, by the way." He helped Jasper start to lift it, grunting with the effort as the started to carry it up the stairs. Jasper took most of the weight off the other man, without him knowing, the less strain, the less blood, and therefore, the better. As they got to the third story, Jasper led John through the open door.

"Alice, I'm back, where do you want the radio?" He called loudly, only for the sake of the human.

"Could you put it by the fireplace?" She called to him, her tinkling voice coming from the bedroom, where she was undoubtedly still messing around with her clothes and fussing over where they would be placed.

"Hm. Seems like most of their furniture is still here. The last family, I mean."

"Yes," Jasper agreed. "They left most of it here, which I have to admit it was a bit of a relief. We didn't have much furniture beforehand ourselves."

"You from down south, by any chance?" John asked, and Jasper looked at him in surprise.

"Texas, actually. Are you?"

"Louisiana originally, but we moved to Mississippi when I was five." John explained.

"Well John, it was a pleasure meeting you. I hope you don't mind, but we have a bit of a job ahead of us..." Jasper lied smoothly.

"Alright, well if you need any help, just give me a holler, I live one floor down, apartment 2c." He waved to Jasper as he headed down the hall, and Jasper smiled in return.

As soon as he was down the stairs, Alice came out of the other room. "I'm very proud of you, Jasper."

"I didn't even think of him as food." Jasper told her. "I think I'm getting better. Still, I'm going to go hunting tonight. Dinner, yum." He joked, and Alice smiled.

"I think that radio should be moved a bit, don't you? Perhaps we should angle it or something..." Jasper chuckled, and they spent the rest of the afternoon with Alice directing where the radio should be placed permanently. As evening came, Alice settled down on the couch and watched Jasper as he set his few belongings on the desk that had been left. His stack of six books, the chess set was put away, and he placed a cowboy hat on the top.

"A keepsake." He told her, grinning.

"What do you think of painting the room a lovely shade of green?" Alice murmured dreamily.

"I think you're getting a little too carried away." Jasper told her teasingly.

Alice sighed over-dramatically. "You never let me have my fun." She said to Jasper.

Jasper in turn just chuckled before picking her up and settling down on the couch with Alice snuggled up next to him. They spent half of the night like that, listening to radio shows and enjoying each other's presence until Jasper gently reminded Alice that he had to go hunting. Alice sighed but nodded, and Jasper quietly left to go "bag a deer" for Alice.

"Hello. My name is Clara, this is my daughter, Marilyn. You two are our new neighbors, correct?" Clara asked, smiling, but obviously weary, maybe because of her daughter, who was currently restless and tugging at the woman's skirt over and over.

"Hi, my name is Alice, and this is Jasper. Yes, we're new in town." Alice smiled, and motioned for Clara and her daughter to come in, but Clara declined.

"No thank you, we were just on our way to church, but I wanted to stop by and say hello before we left. My daughter and I live right next door."

Alice crouched down to where Marilyn was standing, partially hidden behind her mother's skirt. "Hello Marilyn, my name is Alice. It's nice to meet you."

Jasper meanwhile gave Clara a small smile and sent a wave of peace and happiness toward her, while sending calm to the little girl. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Clara."

"Likewise, uh, Jasper, was it?"

Jasper nodded, and Clara blushed, smiling sheepishly. Alice turned to watch how Jasper did. He hardly even reacted, except to freeze for a moment before nodding and smiling at what Clara had just said. She caught a glimpse of the clock behind them, and gasped. "Oh my, I didn't realize we had been running so late. Come along Marilyn, we have to go." She turned to Alice and Jasper. "I'm terribly sorry, but we're going to be late if we don't go now."

Alice waved her away. "Don't worry, we still have to unpack a bit more, anyway. Have a nice time. Bye! Bye Marilyn, I'll see you later!" Marilyn waved excitedly back at Jasper and Alice, and Clara laughed a little.

Jasper closed the door behind Alice and sighed. "You're wonderful with kids, you know that?"

She simply shrugged. "You just have to act like whatever their talking about is the most important thing in the world. It's pretty easy, actually."

"So what would you like to do today?"

"Well...I was thinking," She was cut off by someone knocking on the door, though.

Jasper scowled, but opened the door and controlled his facial expression to neutral. "Hello John, how are you?"

"Good, good. Me and the guys wanted to know if you wanted to go play some baseball at about one o'clock this afternoon?"

"It'll be sunny out." Alice told him at vampire speed, and Jasper pretended to sigh.

"No, I'm sorry, we still have to unpack a bit more. Besides, I don't think the others are very comfortable around me." Jasper grinned, showing his teeth.

"Aw, they just don't know you yet. They'd get used to you, but if you're sure you can't..."

"I'm sorry. I'll have to take a rain check."

John nodded. "Alright, well, I just wanted to check and see. How are you, Alice?" He then asked, seeing Alice behind Jasper.

She smiled brightly. "I'm wonderful John, thank you for asking." He nodded again, and couldn't help the blush that spread across his cheeks. "You'll have to come say hello to my wife and son sometime, both of you. He's turning three next month."

"We'll try to stop by soon." Alice promised.

"I guess I'd better get going then." He started heading down, and Alice and Jasper both called their goodbyes to him.

"Now." Jasper said as soon as the door was closed. "Where were we?"

Alice sighed. "We have to get curtains, Jasper, or else everybody is going to be seeing Sparkly!Alice and Jasper."

Jasper growled. "Fine. Is it cloudy right now?" Alice nodded and Jasper sighed. "Okay, let's go and get this done quick." He let go of Alice all except for her hand, which he continued to hold. "Are you all ready to go, or do you still need time to 'primp' yourself?"

"I'm good." she grabbed the key off the table and then led them both out of the apartment. They took their time walking down the stairs, before they entered the lobby. John was just leaving for church, and cars were heading both ways down the street. Jasper held Alice against himself as they walked down the street, heading for the one store that would sell curtains. "What color should we get? I was think black, or gold, or maybe even a dark, rich blue. What do you think?"

"How about the blue? The walls are yellow, so we don't want it to look like a bumblebee, and gold won't look too good with yellow walls."

"So, like a navy blue, then?"

"Perfect."

The store itself was small, but they found what they needed (Alice probably already knew that was where to go). They were heading back to their home when Alice stopped them in front of a small little hole in the wall of a music store. She smiled in delight before pulling Jasper through the door.

Alice quickly went to the records, while Jasper wandered around the store. Guitars were on display, along with one drum set, and a piano with a sign on the top that read clearly 'FOR DISPLAY ONLY' he picked up a guitar, though, and strummed a few notes that he could remember. Alice came up behind him, holding what she had just purchased. "I didn't know you could play guitar." She said.

Jasper set the guitar back on the stand and nodded. "Sometimes I would play for the boys when I was human. It always kept our spirits up, even when we started losing the battles." Alice detected a bit of nostalgia behind his words, and placed a small hand on his arm. "So where are you going to play those anyway?" He asked, referring to the vinyl record she had gotten, while continuing to strum the guitar in his hands.

Alice smiled mischievously. "Clara doesn't know it yet, but she's going to decide to give us her record player, if we want it, for cheap. She doesn't use it."

Jasper chuckled. "You are something else, Miss Alice." He told her, accentuating the very slight southern twang he still had.

"But of course, my dear Jasper." Jasper chuckled and set the guitar down, motioning toward the door. Alice nodded and they left the store peacefully, fully intending on heading back to their new apartment.

"Aren't you excited, Jasper? We have are own place that we _can _call our own."

"I'm happy as long as your happy, Alice." He said seriously, feeling her emotions. Jasper could almost taste the happiness, because it came off of her so strongly. There was also love, but there was a hint at something deeper. Jasper almost had to dig to find this last emotion, and he had a feeling even Alice didn't realize she was even feeling a deep sadness.

They were in front of their door by then, and Alice gleefully pulled out her key. "Okay. So we're going to hang the curtains up, and then we'll go from there." Jasper nodded in agreement, and Alice opened the door and pulled him in. She quickly pulled the drapery out of the plastic and held it up, half of it gathered on the ground though, because she was so short.

"Jasper, could you hang these up for me?" Jasper nodded his head and picked up the curtain rod that they had bought the other day that had just been left leaning there against the wall. He slipped the drapes onto it after taking them out of Alice's hand before hanging it up in front of the window.

"There you go, love." Alice smiled brightly, and not just because of the curtains.

"You know, that could be considered cheating. you used vampire speed." She huffed jokingly.

"So now I have to follow a certain set of rules?" Jasper teased back.

"Silly Jasper, of course you do." With the speed and gracefulness only she possessed, Alice was suddenly on his back, her lips on his neck. "No using your speed unless I let you."

"Alright then Alice, may I please use my vamp speed?" He joked along. She nodded, and he grinned wickedly before he had her pinned on the ground, her arms above her head. "Do I get to make the rules now?" She laughed, it reminded Jasper of a bell, and he cherished it, forgetting for a moment what was going on.

"Nope." She declared. "It's all me still." They were silent, and a minute passed, before Alice leaned up all of the sudden, pressing her lips against Jasper, her eyes closed. And then he was kissing her back, they got caught up in the moment, but it never went past kissing and holding one another. A knock on the door reminded them that they were not, in fact, alone in the world.

"Hello? Is anybody there?"

"Quick, it's Clara!" Alice hissed. Jasper got off of her, and Alice attempted to brush down her hair, even though some stray pieces always stuck out at odd angles, and smoothed out the invisible wrinkles in her skirt. "Fix your hair!" She added before opening the door. "Hello Clara, how are you?" She said by way of greeting after opening the door.

"Hello Alice, I'm great, thank you for asking."

"So, what's up?"

"Well, I was wondering if you two would like to come over for dinner?" She smiled, and Alice tensed slightly.

"That sounds...nice," She forced out. "but unfortunately, we just ate. I'm sorry."

"Oh. Well, that's fine. You could come over and we could just chat. After all, if we're going to be neighbors, then we should get to know each other."

"Jasper?" Alice called to him, and he came up behind her.

"Yes, Alice?"

"Would you like to go over to Clara's for the afternoon?"

"Sure. So long as we're not doing anything."

"No." Alice told him, and he nodded.

"Great!" Clara smiled brightly again. "Why don't you both come over right now?"

Alice shrugged, and Jasper nodded. "Alright."

Alice laughed as Jasper struggled with all of the wires around the record player. Clara had offered it to them (as Alice knew she would) and now Jasper was trying to get it off the wall. "I think this goes to that...but what about this one..." He muttered to himself. Alice laughed again and helped him get the record player out. They had been spending the evening with Clara and Marilyn, but the little girl was currently falling asleep on the couch.

"Thank you again Clara." Alice said earnestly.

She waved the thanks away. "No problem, really. I hardly ever use it, it just takes up space, and this way I can make a little money off of it."

"It's a win-win situation."

"Definitely." Clara agreed.

"So do you listen to the radio shows?" Alice asked.

"Oh yes, all the time. Now my _radio, _that is something I use. I always catch Mrs. Dale's Diary."

"I love that one!" Alice cried.

"What did you think of Friday's episode?" Clara questioned.

"Let's just say I can't wait for tomorrow evening." Alice said mysteriously.

"You already know what's going to happen, don't you?" Jasper asked at vampire speed. Alice gave a quick nod, and their conversation went unnoticed by Clara, who was currently looking down at her sleeping daughter.

"I'd better go put her to bed."

"That's fine, we have to get going anyway. We'll see you later, okay?" Alice chirped. Clara nodded as she got up.

"That's fine. I'll walk you two to the door."

"No it's fine, don't worry, we'll talk to you tomorrow. Bye, Clara." Then she added in a whisper, "Bye Marilyn." She waved, and Jasper smiled before they headed out the front door. Clara sighed, but started for her daughter's bedroom tiredly.

Meanwhile, Alice and Jasper were back in their apartment, where Alice was already having Jasper set up the record player. She slipped her Al Jolson record on it and hummed along as the music played. "Do you have anything planned for tomorrow, Alice?" Jasper asked as she danced lightly through the living room.

"No, but I _was _thinking of going hunting tonight though."

"I'll go with you, so long as you don't mind."

Alice smiled and danced over to Jasper, staring up at him with so much love that Jasper didn't think it was even possible. "I'd never mind." She said softly, and he smiled too. They continued to stare into each other's faces silently, and time passed. It could have been simply moments, or decades that passed, but the pair didn't seem to notice anything besides their respective lover. Their soulmate.

-----------

_Who saw TWILIGHT?!?!?! The basic plot they followed well, but the smaller things weren't very accurate. I still thought it was awesome. My two favorite parts were...*SPOILER* 1) When Alice and Jasper were walking into the cafeteria, and he twirls her around. And 2) When Bella first goes to the house and Alice and Jasper come in through the window on a tree! *END SPOILER* So what were your guys' thoughts?_

_If you haven't seen it, here's what you have to keep in mind, It's not going to be the book. I think a lot of people were expecting something like, exactly like the book, and so they didn't like it, but I thought it was good._

_It wasn't as long as I wanted it to be, but a respectable length, I guess. I always seem to end it around here. Sigh. So, I'm going to start to try to publish 1 chapter a week, let's hope I can do it!_

_Okay, so I have a vague idea of where I'm going from here, but if anybody has any suggestions, I'll gladly listen to them._

_Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my three OCs, and the Plot. Twilight and all it's characters belong to Stephenie Meyer._

_Thanks for reading! ~Tally ()_


	4. Halloween

Alice and Jasper sat peacefully on the ground, listening to her favorite radio program. They had been leaning against the couch, Alice tucked into Jasper, when she jumped up, and danced over to where the desk was and picked up their chessboard. "Play?" She said hopefully.

Jasper eyed her suspiciously. "Are you going to cheat?"

"No." She said solemnly. "Scouts' honor." Here she dissolved into giggles, and Jasper, watching her warily, took the board out of her hands.

"You'd better not." He muttered under his breath but started to set up the chess pieces anyway. She sat down opposite of Jasper, and watched as he placed the last pawn on it's square.

"You can be white." Alice told him, a peace offering that said she wouldn't cheat. Five minutes into the game, as Jasper stared intently at the board to decide where to move his knight, Alice had a vision. Jasper automatically knew whenever she did, because for that brief millisecond when she wasn't seeing the present or the future to come, she was absent of all emotions. It was a disturbing feeling to know someone was just a blank slate. The first time she had had a vision, Jasper freaked at first when he realized their were no emotions besides his own.

Jasper was pulled back to the game when he felt her start to radiate smugness, and he knew he had lost. Jasper scowled, "You won, didn't you?" He asked, fingering his King. Alice snickered and Jasper sighed before knocking the King over—a surrender.

"You said you wouldn't cheat!" He accused.

Alice blinked innocently. "I never said I was a scout. Besides, all _I _saw was you surrendering. Nothing else."

"So you..._made _me lose?! You made me think that I was going to lose, when all you saw was me giving up. I could've won!"

Alice shrugged. "Yes, you could have." Jasper's scowl deepened, while Alice got another vision. As soon as it was over, Alice giggled lightly.

"What? What'd you see?"

"Just you and Rosalie playing a lot of chess together in the future. Something about banning me and Edward from ever playing the two of you again." She smiled brightly, and Jasper chuckled, effectively getting rid of any bad mood toward whether or not Alice cheated. There was a knock on the door then, and Alice and Jasper simultaneously looked toward the from door. They both stood up and went to answer it.

Clara and Marilyn were standing outside, Marilyn dressed up for the night. "Hi Marilyn, what are you going as tonight?" Alice asked the little girl to please her.

"Guess!" She giggled from under the sheet.

"Hm..." Alice pretended to ponder it. "I don't know Marilyn, it's awfully hard to figure out."

Marilyn giggled and waved her arms wildly. "Silly, I'm a ghost!" She cried, and Alice faked shock.

"Really? I never would've _guessed! _But I guess I can see it. You do look a little paler." Marilyn giggled, and the three adults smiled.

"I'm taking her out to trick-or-treat. With the sugar rationing these past few years, it's been stalled. Everyone around here gives out candy, we even have the building owner giving out candy in the lobby here."

"Sounds popular." Jasper remarked, and Clara nodded in agreement.

"Yes, definitely."

"Well then, I hope you have fun, Marilyn." Jasper told her, giving Marilyn a small smile.

"Thank you." She told him politely, but quickly turned on her mother. "Momma, can we _please _go now? Free candy!" They all laughed, but Clara lightly took her daughters hand and started down the hall.

"We'll see you two later, all right?" Clara said.

"All right, we'll see you soon." Alice smiled and waved along with Jasper. "I hope you get a lot of candy Marilyn!" The little girl's 'ghostly' arm waved back at them before turning and hurrying down the stairs after her mother.

As Alice closed the door softly, the song suddenly changed on the radio to a slow song, and she found herself being pulled into a dance with Jasper. She giggled and smiled, as he looked lovingly down at her, a smile tugging at his lips. They spun around slowly as the music played in the background. Alice leaned her head against his stomach (since she reached no higher than that) and let her eyes slip shut as they moved with the music. He breathed in deeply, taking in Alice's scent, and she leaned in even closer, and if it was even possible to be so close together, they somehow managed it. "I know we don't say it often, we don't need to, but," here Jasper paused before murmuring so low that it seemed like Alice would never here it, though she did, "I love you."

She buried her face into him and smiled before replying, "I love you so much." Jasper kissed the top of her head softly. The music had stopped earlier, and now they were just dancing slowly in silence. "I never thought I could be this..."

"Happy?" Jasper said, finishing her thought.

Alice nodded in agreement. "Yeah. I finally feel...whole, complete, I don't know, but I always felt like I was missing something. But now you're here."

"I feel the same. In the back of my mind, even as a human when I had no idea such a life as this could exist, there was always something tugging at my heart."

They pulled apart, only holding hands, and he twirled Alice slowly before bringing her back to himself. Alice and Jasper were swaying back and forth by then, not even really dancing anymore. Eventually they started to slow until the were simply holding each other, frozen in time. They were oblivious to the rest of the world, and smiled softly at each other. "This is an emotional climate I enjoy." Jasper whispered to Alice.

Alice stepped back and smiled at the soft look in his eyes again. "I'm so happy to be with you now, Jasper."

"And I, you, Alice"

The moment was shattered when Alice was suddenly immersed in a vision, she rocked forward to clutch Jasper, her eyes still staring into space. "No," She whispered to herself.

"What? Alice what did you see?" Jasper was ready for anything, did they have to leave? Was something bad going to happen? Or was it something to do with the strange and mysterious Cullens?

"Jasper," She moaned before the vision ended. "Oh no Jasper!" She cried, "You have to hold your breath, now!"

Jasper quickly stopped breathing, and Alice breathed a sigh of relief. Short seconds later, on the floor below them, a woman cut herself with a knife as she made dinner for her family. "Oh, shoot." She hissed as Alice caught the scent of the drop of blood that fell from her finger.

Alice moaned again and buried her face in Jasper's shirt, holding tightly to him. Partly to keep herself from going down there, partly to keep him from going down there. Jasper had ceased breathing before it had happened, and he had yet to catch the scent, but he knew what had happened, and had stiffened in panic. Alice ran to their window in the back. It looked out upon an alley way, and she called to Jasper. "If you stay, you'll kill her." She told Jasper urgently.

Jasper nodded (still not breathing) and slid the window open. The one in the front was larger, but people would see them, and if they went out the door, then the scent of blood would be even stronger. Instead, the two quickly went down the fire escape, and Alice hurried Jasper to the forest across from them at a quick human's speed.

Once they were well away from the building, Jasper finally let out the breath he had been holding. "We're very lucky that you're physic, Alice." She nodded in agreement. "What did you see?" He asked.

"I saw you attacking her. If you hadn't stopped breathing, that's what would have happened. We can't go back for a couple hours, to let it air out. It's times like these I wish our sense of smell wasn't quite as good as it is."

Jasper sighed and sat down on the ground. "I'm sorry." He told her quietly.

"Why?"

"If I was stronger...if I wasn't so susceptible to blood...Alice, you were _breathing _in there, even after that woman cut her finger."

"But do you know how much it burned my throat? I wanted so badly to run down there and kill that woman myself, I would have if we didn't leave. But I did it to show you that it is possible. Now come on, we'll go and hunt, okay?"

Jasper sighed but nodded and stood up. Alice broke off into a run, and Jasper followed after her. They ran deeper into the forest, trying to catch the scent of an animal. Jasper caught the scent of elk, a herd of them east a ways, and he turned in that direction before he was off. Alice kept to the path she was on.

Jasper spotted the elk about a mile away, and sped up a fraction. He ran quietly through the forest, his feet padding against the dirt and moss on the forest floor. The elk had yet to hear him, and he paused for less than a second before pouncing on the clueless animal.

He bit the animal on the neck, where a vein ran. He drank the warm blood quickly, sucking it dry. Finishing off the animal, he grimaced at the taste, but dropped the carcass and ran again to catch another one. He would bury the animals' bodies later. Jasper caught a second elk, and after finishing it too, he frowned but proceeded to bury the now dead animal.

They tasted nowhere near as wonderful as thick, hot human blood, but he almost found it worth it. He no longer had to feel the horror and pain of his victims, and the most important reason, he could stay with Alice, who had come to mean more to Jasper than anything ever before, even in the few short months they had been together.

Running back to where the first elk was, he quickly dug a grave in the forest and through the body in before filling the gaping hole back up with the moist dirt. When it was filled, h pressed down against the dirt to pack it in until it looked like nothing had been disturbed in the quiet place. Alice came toward him, finished hunting as well. "Are you okay?" She asked softly

Jasper just shrugged. "It's so hard, Alice. Resisting human blood after so long."

"It gets easier Jasper, really it does, you just have to trust me."

Jasper nodded, and the couple left the clearing they had been standing in, holding hands. "Are you done hunting?"

"Yes, you?"

"Yes."

They walked in silence and a human speed. The moon shone brightly, but it was occasionally covered up by the clouds that shifted around in the sky. The path they were on was suddenly lit up by the moon, and every surface seemed to shine brighter. Jasper stopped Alice then, and bent down to pick something up off the ground. He stood up and held it between himself and Alice. "Bluebell." He stated.

"I thought those only flowered in April and May." Alice said. "Why would there be one in October?"

"I don't know." Jasper hesitated before continuing. "In the spring when I was human, I would take my little sister out into the forest by our land, and the ground would be covered with these petals. How strange that I should remember this now." He murmured to himself.

Alice took the flower out of his hand, and continued walking, carrying it gently. "That's good. It's good to remember your human life." She sighed, and Jasper felt the longing she normally kept away.

"It's okay to want to remember." He told her.

"I know, but what's the point when I won't?"

Jasper didn't answer for a minute. "Hope." He said finally. "That's the point, hope that we will remember a life of joy and happiness."

The forest was thinning out, and up ahead the streets were finally empty after a long night of fun for all the kids in Elkins. Street lights were off, and all was dark except for where the moon shone. A couple minutes passed, and then they were out of the forest and back with civilization. "I can't smell the blood anymore." Alice declared.

"Neither can I." He held up Alice's hand and led her back to their apartment. "Let's go home."

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_Way to short for my liking, but that seemed like as a good a place as ever to stop it. The whole chapter in general seemed kind of chopping, like I just stung ideas I liked together and declared it a chapter. Feedback would be much appreciated, to let me know how I'm doing. I'm going to start posting about once a week from now on._

_So we all know that eventually Alice and Jasper get married. I was thinking about having them get married _before _the Cullens, but I would like to put it to a vote. Leave your choice in a review. Marriage—before or after the Cullens? If there is a large margin for after, then I'll probably make an epilogue (when this is finally finished) with them getting married. If not, it will be somewhere in the story._

_Disclaimer: Nothing is mine, all publicly recognized characters belong to Stephenie Meyer._

_~Tally ()_


	5. Thanksgiving Dinner

Jasper sighed and glanced down at his little Alice standing next to him. "Are you sure about this?" His tone questioned how smart it was for him to be in closed quarters with humans for an extended amount of time.

"Don't worry, you'll do great. I see nothing bad happening." Alice told him smoothly. Jasper nodded and took in a deep breath before knocking on the door.

The sound of someone rushing to the door was heard before it was swung open. John and his wife stood there, with their son in John's arms. "Alice, Jasper, please come in." Katherine greeted them, holding the door wider for the two to enter. Alice smiled and led the way in. Katherine guided Alice to the kitchen, while Jasper stayed behind with John and his son, Tommy.

"So are you sure you and Alice can't stay for dinner tonight? Thanksgiving is always fun with our family, and someone is always bringing a friend that doesn't have family or something."

"Thank you for the invitation, but we'll be heading out to Alice's family's house later on." Jasper followed John to the living room, and hesitated only for a fraction of a minute before sitting down after John. "So what did you think of the game the other day? You do watch baseball, don't you?"

"Oh yes, a lot. I was surprised, didn't think that they were going to get a home run." Jasper was simultaneously talking with John, and listening to the other two women in the kitchen as Alice helped Katherine make dinner.

"So how's your hand? I noticed it was in a bandage the last time we came to visit, but I forgot to ask." Alice said as she chopped up carrots.

"Oh, that. A couple weeks ago, last month though, I think, I cut myself horribly. Gash in my finger, I was bleeding everywhere, it's almost healed now." Jasper froze; so that was who had gotten hurt on Halloween.

Alice seemed to realize this too. "On Halloween?"

"Yes, how did you know?"

"I think I heard you. The floorboards are very thin." Alice lied easily.

"Oh." Katherine was embarrassed now.

"...So what do you think?" Jasper angled his body to watch Tommy as he recalled what he and John had been talking about.

"Well, I suppose so, but maybe you should think about it a little more." Jasper told John.

"You think?" Jasper nodded, and while John continued to talk, Jasper turned his mind back to the girls' conversation.

"How long have you and Jasper been married?" Katherine asked.

"We've been together since January." Alice told her.

"Oh, so short? From the way you two were..._connected, _I thought you would have been together longer."

"And you? What about you and John?"

"We've been married for five years." Katherine said happily.

A gust of wind from the open window blew Tommy's sent at Jasper full force unexpectedly, and Jasper suddenly found himself very aware of the vein running through the toddler's neck as he played with blocks on the floor. Jasper imagined the hot sweet blood running down his throat, quenching his thirst finally, and it registered that the child was playing not five feet away from him.

Alice had stood mid-making desert, struck with a vision. "Oh my," She murmured.

Those two words brought Jasper back to reality, and he swallowed the venom the had been pooling in his mouth. He ceased breathing, and turned away from the boy. "Jasper are you alright? You look a little sick." John asked, slightly concerned for his friend. Jasper nodded, not trusting himself to say anything. Alice came out of the kitchen and smiled at the two men, but she silently sent Jasper a message with her eyes.

_Can you handle it, or do you want to leave?_

Jasper gave her a slight nod, while John went oblivious to their silent conversation. Alice nodded back, and turned back to the kitchen. "I'll leave you two alone then." She obviously didn't see anything concrete, so Jasper tried to suffer through the pain he felt in the back of his throat.

He kept the monster that was craving Tommy's blood back, and instead tried to convince himself that doing this would help his self-restraint. Jasper leaned back an inch more into the couch as John continued to ramble on. Jasper was now unaware of what the human was even talking about.

"So how 'bout it?"

Jasper's gaze snapped up to John from where he had been observing the child. Using what little oxygen he had left in his lungs Jasper said. "I'll think about it."

"Great."

He would just have to ask Alice what John had said after this entire ordeal, Jasper decided. The wind shifted, and Tommy's scent was no longer hitting him in the face. Jasper hesitated slightly before taking in a deep breath. It was no where near as strong as it had been before, and Jasper marveled at how the wind could change his resolve to not drink human blood so much harder.

With the wind no longer in his face, Jasper tried to breathe as easily as possible. _In...Out...In...Out..._Jasper swallowed again, and closed his eyes.

"Are you sure you're okay?"

Alice danced in then, Katherine trailed behind her. "We finished the pumpkin pie!" She chimed, and Jasper looked to her gratefully. "It's almost three o'clock, we have to leave by 3:30, but I think we have enough time to make some mashed potatoes, too." She smiled brightly at their neighbors, and Jasper sensed Katherine giving off relief.

"Thank you, Alice. None of John's family wants to help, and both my sister is going to her husband's parents for Thanksgiving, but John here's got a big family, so I'm stuck doing all the cooking." Jasper smiled as Alice laughed her light, soprano laugh.

"Don't worry. I'm glad to help. I know how hard it's got to be to cook for the entire family." It was an easy lie that would be hard to detect.

"Have you had to cook for your entire family?"

"Normally we don't do Thanksgiving together, actually. This will be one of the first since I moved out of the house." They had migrated to the kitchen now, and Jasper chuckled to himself at the story Alice was weaving of her unknown past. He had a feeling the family she was talking about was the Cullens.

"Katherine is always complaining about me and my family being lazy." John grumbled, but Jasper knew that beneath the slight annoyance was the love that the two of them had for each other, after all, he could feel it as well as any emotion that he had himself.

Jasper had now all but completely forgotten about the scent of little Tommy's blood, which had, of course, been Alice's plan all along.

The thirty minutes had passed, and now Alice and Jasper were leaving on the pretense of going up to Alice's parents' house. She waved and grinned at John and his family, while Jasper nodded in good bye as they hurried to the stairwell.

When they got the end of the hall, Alice and Jasper her Katherine say to John, "Well that certainly was nice, although Jasper looked a little sick. Did he look a little sick to you, John?"

"He did, actually. I thought he looked a little hungry, though."

Alice laughed at John's comment as she raced up the stairs, while Jasper followed more slowly, chuckling at what had been said.

"You know," Alice started from one flight up, whispering because she knew Jasper would hear her anyway, "We could always have our own Turkey dinner."

Jasper shook his head in amusement. "First we would need to find a live turkey, Alice. I don't think too many of them are roaming around here in abundance." He teased Alice lightly.

Alice pretended to pout before sighing sadly, even though the emotions she was giving off said otherwise. "I suppose we'll just have to live with Caribou."

"I don't think there are too many of those, either."

"Ooh, I wanna try I flamingo!" Jasper stared at her...and stared...and stared... "Okay gosh, I was just kidding. I'm sure some deer will be fine. Too bad almost all the bears are hibernating right now. I had a vision of Emmett hunting a grizzly a while back." She grinned mischievously. "He's right, they do look more fun when they're irritable."

Jasper found himself noticing how small and tiny and...fragile little Alice seemed right then, even with the feral snarl on her lips, her expression ferocious as she thought of irritable grizzlies to eat. He knew she would be able to take one down no problem, but he had a hard time imagining how she would do it, even if he had seen her hunt before.

"It's not like I'm human." Alice told him like she was reading his mind.

"I know. It's just so hard to imagine...you fighting such a large animal. I know you could take it down, but I still worry. Unreasonably, stupidly, pointlessly, but I worry."

In less than a second, Alice was on his back, her lips pressed against a scar on his neck softly. "Rawr." She joked.

"Aren't _you _one frightening little monster." Jasper teased, twirling her around so that she was now looking him in the face.

"Aren't you one overprotective fool." She was whispering, and serious now. They stared into each others faces, and time seemed to just lose its meaning to them. "We need to go hunt." Alice finally said after a while.

"_I _need to hunt." Jasper corrected her.

"But _I'll_ be going with you. You can never hunt too much," Alice unwrapped herself from Jasper and added thoughtfully, "Well, I suppose you _could_, but it'd be pretty hard. Can vampires get full, do you think? Not satiated, because I know they can with...well, you know, but could they ever get full? Like a human after Thanksgiving dinner?"

"I don't know, Alice." Jasper told her truthfully, and Alice shrugged.

"Oh well, I suppose we never will." She sighed dramatically, but obviously joking. "I wonder what time it is." On the right floor now, they two of them left the stairwell and entered the hallway, where their room was a few doors down. Alice danced to their door and pulled the key out of her purse, unlocking the door and quickly entering. "Wow! It's 4:15. Well that took us a while to get back up here."

Jasper shrugged. "We were otherwise preoccupied."

"You make it sound inappropriate."

"Fine then, we took our time walking up here. Better?"

Alice gave a sharp nod. "Very." She burst into giggles, and Jasper smiled softly at her antics. Alice stopped giggling immediately as a vision sprung upon her. She immersed herself in its images before blinking and turning back to face Jasper. "It's going to be sunny tomorrow." She pouted.

"Looks like we're stuck out of the public eye." Personally, Jasper didn't mind all that much. that night was fine and all, but he had come from Texas, and sometimes he longed to be able to go out into the sun more often. Not that he couldn't, but never around humans.

"You miss the sun, don't you?" Alice questioned.

Jasper just shrugged. "I can go out into it when I want, but not very often, you never know when you'll run into a stray hunter." He sighed. "But yes, I suppose sometimes I do. I miss the blistering feeling that the sun would give you if you stayed out to long back in Texas."

"One day, we'll go somewhere so remote but sunny, that everyday we can go out and enjoy the sun." Alice declared.

"Did you see this?"

"No. Just a feeling. One day we will, promise." Alice looked straight up into his eyes and smiled, her eyes dancing brightly.

"Thank you, Alice." A smile graced his lips then, and it made Alice's smile widen.

"I love it when you smile." She stated happily.

"You are the cause for most of them. You make me happy." Jasper said softly.

Jasper felt an acute pang of sadness coming from Alice. "You didn't have a lot of happiness or love in your life. Not before now."

"Now is all that matters to me. Now, with you." He sent a small dose of happiness to her. Not enough to alert her, but certainly enough to get rid of the sadness she had, so that the main emotion emanating from her was happiness.

Alice grinned widely and giggled, a side effect from being completely happy. She grabbed Jasper's hands and held them in her own smaller ones as she leaned forward and stood on tip-toes to make herself a bit taller. "Well then let's keep it that way! From here on out, the past doesn't matter, it made us who we are, even if I can't remember mine, but it won't effect our lives from now on. And if I ever find out about my life before being a vampire, I won't let it change anything."

"What if you discover that you already had somebody else...before?" Jasper asked, hardly wanting to face the chance that maybe she already had a husband she loved deeply.

"I'd stay with you even if we found that out. You out of anyone should know how I feel about you." Alice said softly, her happiness 'level' (because there were levels to any person's emotions, Jasper knew) dropping.

Realizing that they were still standing in the entryway, Jasper lightly pulled on Alice's hand and led her to the bedroom. "I know you don't like wearing designer clothes when we hunt." He said by way of explanation.

Alice nodded and started to dig around in their closet as Jasper sat on the (unused) bed and watched her silently. When she finally pulled out an old dress that she had used to hunt in before, Jasper stood up and left the room. "I'll leave you to get dressed." He said politely.

Alice shook her head, but waited for him to close the door anyway. "So proper," She muttered under her breath. "Honestly."

As soon as she was ready, the two left to go hunt together a couple cities over where wolves had been spotted recently. The spent the rest of the night hunting, even though they had just been out two days before. Finally, the night was spent, and the sun slowly came up over head as Alice and Jasper just entered their apartment.

Light filtered in through the open window, and Alice quickly closed it before sighing in relief. "That was close." She joked weakly.

_----------_

_Ugh, I hate how I ended this, but I couldn't come up with anything else. I think I'm running out of ideas. I've got ideas for the next two chapters (Christmas themed) but then I'm coming up short. Maybe something about New Years, and then since I had them meet in January, I'll have them celebrate an anniversary of sorts, but then we have a whole rest of the year before they meet the Cullens. Any ideas?_

_So far, more people want them to get married before they meet the Cullens, if you want them to get married after, then review and leave your vote. Also, just so you know, next chapter is going to be short compared to normal, because it's broken in to two parts with the chapter after it, then they will be longer again, I swear._

_I can't believe how quickly I've been getting these chapters out, compared to normal. I just hate making everybody wait!_

_Disclaimer: I own nothing._

_~Tally_


	6. Cracker Jacks

Alice sighed as she flicked through a fashion magazine she had already read through twice. "You're going to be invited to play poker." She said casually to Jasper, who was just sitting on the couch staring into space.

"What?" He turned to face Alice, waiting for her to explain.

"John is going to invite you to play with the rest of the guys in the building the day before Christmas Eve. You should go."

Jasper cocked his head to the side. "Will it be...safe?"

Alice nodded. "Yep, you'll be fine. I already saw you going, too, so don't argue."

Jasper shook his head and laughed. "And here I thought I had my own free will."

"No, you don't. Not unless I say so. Haven't we already covered this?" Alice grinned and laughed too.

"Sorry, my mistake, what was I thinking?"

"I don't know." She shrugged jovially, but then grew serious. "But really, I think you should go. It would be good for you."

"Are you _sure _that everything would be fine?" He asked again, more earnestly this time.

"Yes Jazz, I'm sure." Jasper froze when she said that before quickly relaxing, though not before Alice noticed. "I'm sorry. Do you not want me to call you that?"

Jasper hesitated, but shook his head. "No. No, it's fine. I was just taken by surprise. I've never really had a _nickname _before. Maria," He flinched, "Was never exactly one for pet names, and neither was anybody else I ever knew. Well, maybe my family, but I don't remember them that well, so I couldn't be sure."

"If it makes you feel any better, I never had a nickname, either."

Jasper glanced at her swiftly before looking out the window. "Did you ever want one?"

"I suppose, sometimes I did." Jasper felt the longing though, as if it were his own, and knew that she wanted to have that familiarity with someone. Still, she cheered up immediately after saying this by adding, "But the only thing I can think of for a nickname for Alice would be Al, and when I think of that, I think of I guy owning a pancake restaurant, but not selling pancakes."(1)

Jasper looked at Alice strangely. "Sorry, ahead of the time period. The writer hasn't even been born yet."

"Vision?" He asked needlessly, to which Alice nodded.

There was a knock on the door, and Jasper turned to Alice. "It's John, he's decided to invite you now. Before he loses his courage or something like that. He has changed his mind over this at least four times today."

Jasper got up to get the door while he continued talking to Alice. "Is that why you've had so many visions today?"

"Yes."

Jasper opened the door, and just as promised, there was John. "Hello John, how are you?" Even though he could successfully breathe around John, it still didn't make being around him much easier.

"I'm great Jasper, and you?"

"Alright."

"That's good. So listen, me and the guys always get together the day before Christmas Eve to have a night of poker, you in?" And again, just as Alice had said, Jasper was being invited to poker.

Already knowing his decision beforehand, Jasper shrugged. "Sure why not?"

"Great. We meet at my place at six. If you want to eat something, you gotta bring your own food. We're gonna have some snacks, but that's about it." Jasper chuckled at the fact, that before this 'diet' of his, John would have been the snack. It was black humor, but humor nonetheless

Sensing more than hearing Alice come up behind him, Jasper shifted so John could see Alice. "You could send Katherine and Tommy up here, if you like. I don't know what she normally does."

"That's be great, but I think she might be doing some last minute shopping, I'll tell her, thought." John started to turn and waved. "So I'll see you two later?"

"Sure!" Alice chirped while Jasper simply waved.

"Looks like I'm going to be meeting the rest of the guys later this week." Jasper said as they closed the door.

"Just remember, humans are friends, not food." Alice chirped teasingly, giggling as he swatted at her playfully.

Jasper watched the other men as the shifted in their seats. It was the 23rd of the month, and just as he had said, Jasper was playing poker with the other guys in the building. Having been a little nervous, Alice finally promised Jasper that if he started thinking of the humans here as "snacks" she would go down there personally and get him out of there. But so far, the evening had actually been going pretty good. He had won ten dollars, and had a good hand now, too.

Robert was upset, and as everyone turned to him to see what he would do, Robert through his cards down on the table, still face down. "I fold!" He cried angrily, a couple people chuckled, but most moved on the William sitting next to him. Jasper went through everybody at the table, running their names through his head.

Robert, William, George, Paul, Harry, Arthur, John, Carl, and Anthony. Placing names to the faces, he knew that they were all the men he had seen on the first day he and Alice had moved in. Everybody was expectant now, and Jasper quickly looked down at his hand "I'll see you one dollar, and raise you one more dollar."

Harry frowned, and Jasper got the feeling of disappointment. He quickly shook it off and listened to George as he matched Jasper's bet of two dollars. After they had finished going through the table (Harry folded, too), Jasper watched confidently as William laid out his hand—a straight.

Jasper smirked and slowly revealed his own hand, a four of a kind. Six people were now disappointed, but one was excited. "Read 'em and weep." Jasper told the other boys, but internally he was frowning. The only reason one of them would be excited right then was...

"Straight flush." John declared, enunciating every syllable slowly. All the guys groaned as John pulled his entire haul close. A couple of them stated that they were giving up, but everybody else got dealt an all new hand.

Robert opened a bag of Cracker Jacks, and Jasper almost gagged at the smell. As he stuck one in his mouth, Jasper _did _crinkle his nose in distaste. "How do you like those?"

Robert shrugged. "How do you not?" Having lost the past six games, Robert has finally given up and was just watching them play now.

The game progressed, and as Jasper realized that he was losing, he finally folded and continued watching. "I'll just play next round." He told them. Jasper glanced over to the window that he had made sure was open before they even started playing at the beginning of the night. Although there was chance that one of the mens' scents would hit him full force, it was better than the air circulating over and over in their with all the warm, sticky, delicious blood...

Jasper shook his head, reminding himself that he was now, _vegetarian_. His eyes had even finally started to lighten up to the gold that Alice's had been, though right now he had a feeling they were black. Even hunting earlier that day wouldn't help that.

He looked over at Robert as the man had stopped eating and was now looking at something. "What'd you get?" George called to Robert. Jasper swiftly moved to the other side of the room near the window. While it appeared that he was simply looking out, he was really breathing in the cool, untainted night air. He really didn't want to risk it.

"A...ring? What's with that? It's some plastic ring. Fake little jewel and everything! Anybody want it, I sure as hell don't." Robert was glaring at the ring, and Jasper chuckled quietly to himself.

Everybody either shook their head or muttered something about why anyone would want it. Jasper watched silently and glanced over at the ring. "May I look at it?" He asked calmly.

Robert glanced over at him before tossing the ring to Jasper, who caught it deftly and examined it more closely. "Not like I have any use for it." He muttered.

Jasper ignored Robert, and instead continued looking at the ring. Plastic, like Robert had said, but the tiny fake jewel still glittered slightly. Worth nothing, but...

Ideas were tossed around in his mind, as he thought of the idea that had been brushed upon more than once before. He had been to the different shops, but the want for surprising Alice always stopped him from getting anything. Surely though, since this was all last minute. He hadn't planned for this, not right now, so maybe she wouldn't see it...He wanted to do this. He had for a while. She must've seen that, but not when...

Now steeled in this thought, Jasper stood up, the little ring still in his hand. "You said you didn't want this?" He confirmed.

"Go ahead and take it. None of _us _want it, or need it." It was jab about the fact that Jasper wasn't 'one of them' which really, he wasn't, in more than one aspect. But right now, that wasn't important (nor would it ever be important), right now he had to worry about surprising Alice.

"I have to go." Jasper told them quickly, hurrying toward the door.

"Aw, Jasper, why don't you stay, one more round?" John said, thinking what Robert had said had offended Jasper somehow. "Just ignore Robert, everybody else does." William laughed, while Robert scowled.

"It's not that. I need to go see Alice. I'll see you later." Jasper muttered this through clenched teeth before he rushed out of the room and up the stairs. He _really _wanted to try to surprise Alice.

Finally getting to their apartment, Jasper quietly opened the door. Alice was sitting on the couch, reading a book Jasper had given her, the radio on almost silently in the background. "Alice," Jasper breathed.

Alice looked up. "Hi." She said brightly. "Is poker over?" Suddenly worried, and slightly confused, Alice sat up straighter, and the blanket she had over herself fell off. "Did something happen? I didn't see anything, but maybe it slipped by..."

Jasper gave a sigh of relief. _So she didn't see anything, _Jasper thought happily. Alice had continued talking, "I can check the future, find a good route out of here. I can have everything packed in a minute..."

"No, nothing happened, Alice, calm down." He sent a wave of calm toward her, and took two steps closer.

"Alice, Ali..." Jasper trailed off as they stared into each other's faces. He closed his eyes and took a deep, needless breath before opening them again. Alice's eyes had softened even more at his giving her a nickname. Hesitating for a quarter of a second more, Jasper opened his mouth and prepared himself to do the most important thing that he would ever do in his existence.

Getting down on one knee, Jasper pulled the silly little plastic ring out, and held it front of the two of them. "Alice, will you marry me?"

----------

_(1): Gilmore Girls Reference. Basically it's Alice saying that she knows the show will be a big hit, but Amy Sherman-Palladino has not even been born yet to write it. More specifically, Al's Pancake World._

_I know, ridiculously short, but I wanted to leave you on a slight cliffhanger (I mean, we all know what's going to happen) and that's just where it ended. Personally, I'm happy with it, besides the length. I had writer's block for the past few chapters, but I think that was mainly because I had this planned for a while, and I really wanted to get to this scene._

_Did you think that the idea of engagement was a little rushed, personally? I didn't, because in my mind, well, they're soulmates, and they know that, and if you didn't get it from Jasper's inner monologue earlier, he had been thinking about doing this for a while, but he wanted to try to surprise Alice, so that's why he never bought a ring. Obviously if she does say yes (which of course she will) then he'll buy a real ring, but I just thought it would be cute to use some little fake ring, and I got the idea, Hey, why not get it out of a Cracker Jack box? I mean, where else would he get it?_

_Disclaimer: I only own the characters you don't recognize. Alice and Jasper belong to Stephenie Meyer._

_Saw Twilight for a third time! One of my favorite lines, "Oh well I think we can handle that." -Jasper._

_~Tally_


	7. Christmas Surprises

"Alice, will you marry me?" Alice's eyes widened as she stared at Jasper on one knee, holding the toy ring and looking at her hopefully.

"Oh my...yes. Yes!" Alice threw herself against Jasper, laughing and tightly pulling him closer. "Yes! Yes! Yes!"

Jasper stood up and slipped the plastic ring on her finger before picking Alice up and spinning her around. He was just as happy as Alice, even without her emotions melding with his own. Alice touched the ring on her finger. "Plastic?" Not teasing, just curious.

"I wanted to surprise you. One of the humans got one in a cracker jack bag, and suddenly I knew, that was how I was going to propose to you. I'll get you a real one soon enough."

"I saw you in all the Jewelry stores, but I never imagined..." Alice grinned and hugged Jasper even more tightly than before. "I can't believe it. It's like a dream. A wonderful, wonderful dream..."

"For me as well, Alice."

It struck Alice yet again what all this meant. "We're getting married!" She cried, and laughed just because of the emotional high. Jasper, even more affected, joined in her laughter. Soprano and bass, together.

"I can't believe we're going to get married." Alice whispered again as Jasper held her close.

"Alice Whitlock." Jasper said, thinking aloud. Never had he tried it aloud. He had only dared let himself think it, and her name with his tasted wonderful on his lips.

"Mrs. Jasper Whitlock." Alice tested it out slowly, before a smile spread across her face. "You're my fiancé, now, Major."

Jasper dipped his head low and said with his accent, "As you are my _fianc__ée, _Miss Alice."

Alice grinned wildly. "We have to celebrate!"

"What would you like to do?" Jasper murmured into her hair, breathing in her scent.

Alice pondered the question for a moment before she decided. "Dancing."

"Then I shall take you out, and we will dance through the entire night. Anything for you, my love."

"Let me get ready, and then we can go." Alice lightly touched his arm before moving to the bedroom to find an all new outfit to wear.

****

Jasper pulled Alice closer to him as the danced to the song that was playing in the background. Her arms were wrapped around his torso, and he had his placed on her lower back. They were dancing closer than what was probably acceptable, but Jasper found that he didn't care. "I think this is our song. It played that night on the radio when we were dancing, just like this." Alice murmured quietly. Only a few couples were on the dance floor now.

"From now on, it's our song then." Jasper decided, and he felt Alice's joy as his own.

"Our song" She breathed, and it barely came out above a whisper.

The couple, soon-to-be-married happily in love Alice and Jasper Whitlock, danced the night away. Through slow songs, and the newest songs that were 'in' at the moment, the two enjoyed themselves, as if they were the only two there. With a cloudy day in store for Christmas Eve Day, there was no fear of being caught in the sunlight.

Eventually they wandered out, and Alice skipped happily down the street, Jasper following behind her slightly. She was holding the heels that she had been wearing, and was simply going barefoot. Alice stopped suddenly and turned to face Jasper. Alice smiled brightly, and held out her hand to him. Jasper grabbed it, and Alice walked slowly with him in silence then.

"When would you like to go ring shopping, Ali?" Jasper murmured in her ear, leaning down next to her.

Alice glanced down at the dress-up ring she had on her finger, since she hadn't taken it off yet. "I think it can wait a little. I'm happy with this." She smiled and giggled a little before continuing,

"Can you imagine telling a story about this to someone? 'He proposed to me with a little plastic ring, and caught me completely by surprise, too!' You are truly amazing if you managed to get me by surprise. That hasn't happened since..well it hasn't happened."

Jasper smiled down at her. "It will be an interesting story to maybe tell the Cullens one day." Silently, he was basking in the glow Alice's warm emotions seemed to leave in the air around them.

"Although..." Alice started slyly after they had walked in silence for a little. "Maybe we _could _just look at a couple stores today."

"How much money do we have?" Jasper asked curiously.

"Why?"

"Well of course you still need a Christmas present, plus the fact the rings aren't exactly cheap either. But I was thinking, if we had enough money..."

Alice squealed, already knowing what Jasper was going to suggest. "A Cadillac Coupe deVille?!"

Jasper smiled faintly. "I had a feeling you would like it. Especially since you've started to see the Cullen cars. I knew you would want one sooner or later. But we have enough money, right?"

"Jasper, Jasper, Jasper," Alice sighed jokingly. "I'm a psychic, I pulled my money out of the stock market before it crashed, and I always know when to put it back in. I just recently put our money back in, but we should have enough money to..._splurge _on anything that might catch our eye."

"Like perhaps and engagement ring, and a car." Jasper teased, and Alice sighed happily, snuggling closer to him. The thought of being _engaged! _And to Jasper; Alice was blissfully happy. On cloud nine, even. "So you would like to go shopping for a ring today?" Jasper confirmed, and Alice nodded. "Alright, where would you like to go? I'm sure you saw some that you thought were nice."

****

Jasper had thought that Alice would want something extravagant. Three diamonds, side by side, perhaps, or a complex design that was beautiful, but maybe a little crazy, but Alice waltzed into the Tiffany & Co. and already knew the exact one she wanted to look at. With a swift glance at the rings on display, Alice asked if she could look at the Tiffany Setting, a simple band with one diamond in the middle, round and glittering, just as their marble skin would in the sun.

"That's the one." Alice murmured to Jasper, too quiet for the human to hear..

He glanced over at Alice, and then the ring again. "You'll have it for forever, are you sure?"

"Are you doubting me?"

"Never, sweetheart, but I want to be positive that this is the ring you want."

Alice looked up at him adoringly and nodded. "It is."

"Alright." He turned to the saleslady, who until then had been telling them about it, not noticing their own vampire conversation. "I'll take it." He was amazed at how the times were changing. Ten years ago, a woman wouldn't be working here at Tiffany & Co., but Jasper had long gotten over any prejudices that he might have had. He had no qualms with a woman working there, it just amazed him how different things would be in ten, 20 years from now.

Jasper's musings could only have taken a second, because the lady had no more than opened her mouth to respond when his thoughts ended. "Are you sure you wouldn't like to look around a bit more. We have a lot more extravagant designs, if you're interested, Miss." She had obviously missed the conversation.

Alice shook her head. "No. I want that one. That's the one."

"Okay. We'll have to take your finger size, unless you already know it." Alice shook her head, and the woman went to get the tool to check for the ring size.

As Alice held out her hand for the sales woman to take her finger size, Jasper noticed her eyes caught on the Cracker Jack ring that until then had simply stayed on Alice's finger. She blinked a couple times. "You'll have to take that off." She told Alice. Alice nodded and slipped the ring off her finger before handing it to Jasper.

"Don't think that you can go return that there ring." Alice told Jasper teasingly.

Jasper laughed, and Alice giggled along with him as the salesperson's started to scowl, obviously still trying to fit Alice's finger. "I wouldn't dream of it." Jasper promised Alice.

****

An hour later, Alice and Jasper were walking out of Tiffany & Co., Alice feeling particularly satisfied. _It doesn't feel like my life could get any better than it is right now, _Jasper mused to himself. Alice was humming quietly as they strolled along. She was walking at a slightly quicker pace than his own, swinging their interlocked hands between the two of them.

"Who are we going to invite?" Alice asked before answering her own question, "Peter and Charlotte for sure, if we have gotten there yet, then the Cullens, but I don't know if I can wait. We can't invite the humans, they all already think we're married." She sighed softly. "It's too bad, I would've loved to have Marilyn, you know, Clara's little girl? I would have loved to have her as our flower girl. Oh well."

"Anybody else?" Jasper asked.

"Well...there was this one girl I knew. She was the first person that initially told me what I had become. After all, I had simply woken up with just my name. But I don't know where she would be. I haven't seen her in twenty years, and we only stayed together for a month or so."

"Well why don't you try looking for your friend's future, and if you can't find her after that, then we'll just have to go on without her. I'm sure she'd understand." Jasper smiled down at Alice, reassuring her with both his words and his gift simultaneously.

"Do you mind if I try now?" Jasper shook his head, and Alice took a deep breath before immersing herself in the images that floated in her mind. The small visions, not affecting much, buying this shirt instead of that, that sort of thing, seemed like they were always there. It was the small, petty ones that Alice had learned to ignore, but she searched through them anyway before looking into the future with more purpose this time. Flitting through them, Alice finally realized she wouldn't find anything, and turned to look back at Jasper. "I can't see anything. I suppose maybe she was...killed. It seems like so short a time, and yet, so much can happen." Alice murmured to herself.

Jasper tested her emotions. A bit of remorse was there, along with sadness, but the dominant emotion has happiness, and love. "You'll be alright?"

"I barely knew her. I'm sad that she is now gone, as far as we know, but it's not like if I lost one of the Cullens...or you." Overwhelming heartbreak swarmed Jasper, and he realized it was from Alice's thought of losing him. "That would be horrible." She added in a softer tone.

Right then, Jasper wanted to gather Alice up in his arms and make sure that she would never leave him, because her pain was affecting him just as much as it was affecting her, perhaps more. Instead, he simply settled for kissing the top of Alice's head lovingly.

"You'll never lose me, and I would hope that I'll never lose you. I will stay with you until you force me to leave. And as for these Cullens that you have come to love as your very own family, I will protect them with all I have. Whether I hate them or come to love them as you do, I will always protect them, I promise."

Alice's eyes danced in delight. "I knew you would say that."

****

Christmas day dawned cloudy and stormy—perfect weather for Alice and Jasper. When noon came around, Jasper led Alice out to the front of the apartment building, where the car he had purchased was waiting. Even though Alice already knew about the new Coupe, she still squealed excitedly when she saw it, immediately impatient to go for a drive. Jasper quickly opened the driver's door for her, and held it open. Alice smiled and gave a little curtsey, giggling as she slid into her seat.

He closed the door and was in the passenger seat by the time Alice had the car on and purring quietly. "Before we go," Jasper started, lightly taking Alice's left hand in his own, "I would like to formally give you your engagement ring." He slid the diamond onto her ring finger before he brought his hand to his lips, and touched his lips to her knuckles.

If she could have blushed, Alice surely would have right then. "Thank you." She murmured.

"Thank _you. _You saved me from myself, Miss Alice."

"Soon to be Missus, thank you very much." Alice sniffed.

Jasper laughed, and Alice smiled before throwing the car into drive and pulling out into the street. She was practically bouncing in her seat in excitement, Jasper noted. "Where are you taking us, anyway?"

Alice laughed. "I don't know. Right now we're just driving for the sake of driving." They sat in silence for a little while then, and Jasper caught her eyeing her ring quite a few times. Inwardly, he was grinning from ear to ear to know that she was so happy about the two of them being together _forever._

"This is the best Christmas ever." Alice told him suddenly. "We're engaged, and we got a _car!_"

"This is our first Christmas together, too."

"Yes," Alice agreed. "That is most definitely a plus"

Jasper glanced out the window and noticed the surroundings. "You do realize that we've now driven through the town two times, right? If you keep this up, we'll run out of gas."

"Don't worry Jasper, we won't." She tapped her head and grinned; Jasper smiled in reply.

Eventually, Alice pulled the car back in to the parking lot out in front of their home, and Jasper opened the door and pretended to fall to the ground. "Land!" He cried jokingly.

Alice mock-glared at him, indignant. "Are you making fun of my driving?" She crossed her arms and waited for an answer, looking fierce. "Don't make me remind you that I actually _have _a license. Although I think it might have expired a couple years ago..." She trailed off with her remark, and made Jasper laugh again. He picked himself up off the ground and led her into the building, an arm around her waist.

"I would never make fun of you. Or your driving." Jasper murmured in her ear before giving her a quick peck on the cheek, smirking slightly..

Alice smiled softly, and her eyes lit up as she remembered something. "I got something for you too! Come on!" She pulled Jasper quickly up the stairs, impatiently trying to get back the their apartment faster. She ordered that Jasper go sit on the couch as soon as they were through the door, and Jasper agreed easily.

Alice hurried into their unused bedroom, and rustled through her closet. "It's not clothes, is it, Alice?" Jasper called teasingly, but there was a slight edge of panic to it.

Alice 'harrumphed' from the bedroom as she pulled something out of the closet and made her way out to the living room. "No," She said before continuing evilly, "But I know exactly what to get you next year."

Jasper grimaced, but Alice was now coming out of the bedroom, and he had to admit that he was curious. "Okay, what is it."

"Well, I saw you admiring it a while back, so...here." She held out a brand new Taylor guitar, and Jasper reached out a hand to stroke the wood gently.

"Amazing..." He mumbled to himself.

"Go on, play something on it!" She held it out to him, and Jasper took it lightly.

"What do you want me to play?" He asked, still staring adoringly at his guitar.

"I don't know, anything." She smiled as he touched the strings, picking at them and playing a soft melody. "I see you like it."

Jasper looked up from his daze. "I love it. Thank you, Alice. I haven't been able to play a guitar since my human years. I don't remember much, but I'm sure it will all come back to me, or I'll simply start from scratch again." He plucked at the strings again, listening as the wove together to make a slow song.

Remembering a song he used to play to the soldiers when they were down, Jasper, attempted to remember the notes. He started slowly at first, before picking up speed and confidence that he could remember the song. Before long, Jasper was playing the entire song, and as he strummed the first few notes again, Alice started to sing.

"Oh I wish I was in the land of cotton, old times there are not forgotten," Jasper smiled softly as the song progressed, and Alice's soprano voice carried the lyrics. When he finally played the last note, Alice's voice carried the last word for a moment before she too stopped.

Alice started clapping in applause, and Jasper smiled and ruffled her hair. "You have a very beautiful voice, Alice." Jasper told her truthfully. Alice frowned at her now mussed up hair, but smiled quickly at the compliment.

"You're not too bad at that guitar yourself, soldier." Alice winked, and Jasper laughed aloud. "What should we do for the rest of the day?" Alice wondered out loud while Jasper studied her left hand carefully. The ring was still there, and he kept feeling this irrational fear that some day he would look and it wouldn't be there. Alice smiled in a satisfied sort of way when she caught Jasper staring at the engagement ring. "We could always go shopping!" Alice suggested.

"Nobody is open on Christmas around here." Alice's face fell, and Jasper quickly amended his statement. "At least I don't think so, but we could always go out of town."

Alice lit up when she realized what that entailed. "I'll get to drive the Coupe again!"

Jasper smiled at her excitement. "Yes Alice, you'll get to drive the Coupe again."

"C'mon then!" Alice pulled Jasper out the door and down the hall, only to remember that they hadn't locked the door. Jasper patiently pulled Alice back and locked the door before she was hurrying them back to the ground floor.

John was out in the front with his son, eyeing the Cadillac meaningfully when Alice and Jasper came out. Jasper slid in to the passenger seat at a human speed, and wave cordially at John. Alice, impatient to get going, waved curtly before urging Jasper to go faster. John was walking over to them however, and Alice growled impatiently. "Come on!" She cried quietly in frustration. "If we don't hurry, I'm going to miss out on a designer dress—one of a kind!"

Jasper chuckled and rolled down the window so John could speak to them. "Is this _yours?_" He asked incredulously.

Jasper nodded. "Yes, I got it for Alice for Christmas. She's been wanting to go somewhere in it all day, so I told her we could go shopping. Shopping and a fast car, two things Alice can't resist." He smirked slightly, and Alice snorted delicately.

"There are more important things to me than shopping and fast cars, namely you." She told him at vampire speed. Jasper turned and smiled at Alice.

"I'm sorry John," Alice started. "But there is a really big sale a couple towns over. I really want to get there before it's _all _gone. I hope you don't mind."

John shook his head. "Not at all, go right ahead. I know how Katherine gets when there's a sale. Good luck Jasper, you'll need it." Jasper chuckled as Alice huffed in annoyance. With one longing look at the car again, John took Tommy's hand and led him back over to where what Alice assumed were the little boy's Christmas presents.

Alice sped off, grinning as they hit seventy by the time they were on the main street. "Alice," Jasper cautioned, "Be careful of the humans."

"I won't hit anybody, don't worry. Besides, almost no one is out. Except for that woman who wants my dress." Alice added the last part in a growl.

****

In the end, Alice did get the dress, and also a new pair of shoes and a jacket for Jasper. Satisfied with the day, they finally started heading back to the apartment, Alice in a joyful mood the entire way, fueling Jasper's own happiness.

"So I was thinking, on New Years Eve," Alice started. "That we could do something. It's going to snow the night before, and it will be perfectly cloudy again..." She trailed off, and Jasper knew that she already had something planned, and from the smugness that radiated off her, he knew there was no point in arguing.

"What did you have in mind?" Jasper asked, wary.

Alice's grin widened, and suddenly Jasper was nervous of whatever she had planned. "Ice Skating."

_I have finals next week (ick) so I'm not going to be able to update, thanks to studying, but after that I've got two weeks off for winter break, and I'll get right back on the story. Don't worry, I'll be back soon!_

_Anyway,__ I'm finally back on track! It was 7 and a half pages (and that's not including my author's note), which is better than what I've been doing for the past few chapters. Next time, ice skating with Alice and Jasper, and I know where I'm going from there! So I'm excited!_

_Disclaimer: I own nothing. Don't sue._

_Speaking of disclaimers, one day, I'm gonna write a book, and then write a fan fiction on here, and be all like 'I own it, what now?!?!?' It'll be awesome. Yep. Feedback is love!_

_~Tally_


	8. Ice Skating

Shifting his weight, Jasper grimaced as he almost fell on the ice...again. Just as Alice had predicted, they were now ice skating on a nearby pond on New Year's Eve. She was skating circles around him, sometimes quite literally.

"C'mon Jazz!" Alice called joyously from across the pond, and somehow, hearing the elation in her voice, along with the emotions he felt clear as day, made every single fall worth it. It didn't lessen his frustration with the skates any less though. He fell then, and heard Alice's tinkling laugh as she skated over to him to help Jasper up. "How have you never ice skated before?!" She asked incredulously.

"I lived in Texas." Jasper defended. "And I didn't do much ice skating when I finally left. It never even crossed my mind."

"Well get used to it." Alice said, looking fierce as her little hands balled into fists. "We're going to be doing a lot of ice skating in the future, and I don't need visions to tell me _that._" Jasper grimaced again.

Alice looked up at the sky, where the sun was peaking up over the mountains, flecks of pink dotted the bright sunrise. It was early, but time held no meaning when you were immortal, and not having to sleep meant that they had been out there for a couple hours now. She glided around gracefully on the ice, and Jasper smiled unconsciously as her perpetual happiness bombarded him again. "Now come on, I'll lead." She too his hand and guided Jasper over the ice, laughing when he stumbled, and going down with him when he fell.

Despite his grumbling, they were both in a great mood, and it seemed as if the day would never end. Eventually, they ended up skating around in circles, holding hands and enjoying the quiet moment together. "Can you believe that in less than 12 hours, it will officially be 1949?" Alice whispered even though it was just the two of them there.

"I know." Jasper agreed. "Can you believe we've been together for almost a year now?"

"On January 17th at 5:04 we will have been together for one year, if you want to get technical." Alice declared happily.

Jasper laughed and smiled down at her, happy to be able to spend the entire day alone. He suddenly grinned mischievously, and Alice shook her head, already seeing what Jasper was planning to do. "No, Jasper no..."

Jasper grabbed both her hands in his own and spun Alice around the ice as quick as possible. Alice shrieked with laughter, despite her warning him not to, and Jasper's deep laugh mixed with her own as they spun around and around.

As the spinning finally slowed, Jasper pulled Alice right up against him, and Alice smiled up at him. They were holding hands still, and Alice attempted to persuade Jasper to dance with her.

"In skates?" Jasper asked incredulously, raising one eyebrow.

Alice nodded. "Of course. Just try it, I'll lead."

Jasper shrugged, and let Alice guide him through the simple dance. They fell a few times (well, more than a _few_), but overall, Jasper thought they were doing quite well.

"Now something harder." Alice encouraged, and Jasper looked at her with slight panic on his face. "Oh, don't worry, coward. I'll protect you." Alice teased frivolously.

Jasper grimaced. "I'll fall again. It won't hurt, but..."

"You big baby." Alice taunted him, trying to get him to take the challenge.

He did. Sweeping her up in his arms, Jasper whirled her around once on the ice gracefully, enjoying the look of shock on her face. Before he could enjoy the winning moment too long, it was dashed to the ground when he slipped, bringing them both crashing down. Alice was lying on his chest, looking surprised at what had happened.

Dazed would have been an appropriate word, had she not been a vampire. Suddenly, she burst into laughter at what had just happened. Jasper chuckled along with her and pulled the both of them up before leading Alice over to the edge of the little pond.

They both fell back into the snow pile behind them, still holding hands. The two of them looked at each other and then down at their hands, fingers interlocked. If anybody had stumbled across them right then, it would have looked very strange, for Alice was wearing a simple, thin, sundress and Jasper's shirt was unbuttoned and lying open. Two jackets lay discarded on the other side of the makeshift ice skating rink, along with shoes, and other garments meant to keep a human warm. They had all been dumped early in the morning before the sun had come up, seeing as the two vampires didn't feel the cold.

"Maybe we could go up to New York later," Alice mused. "It would be fun to watch the ball drop."

"I think it would be too crowded by now, Alice. You know how early most people get there, just to get a good place."

Alice sighed. "I know, but wouldn't it be fun if we could?"

"We'll go another year, okay? After all, we've got all the time in the world." He chuckled, and Alice cracked a smile before kissing him on the cheek happily.

"Okay."

A vision pulled at the edges of Alice's mind, and she fought to push it back, to stay in the moment with Jasper just a little longer, but it pushed itself into her mind, playing out the future for her like a movie.

_"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" The petite woman started to circle around Peter and Charlotte slowly. Peter stepped in front of his mate protectively, a snarl tearing at his lips._

_The woman sunk into a crouch, ready to strike. "The traitor and the runaway, together forever..." She mocked._

_"You were going to have her killed!" Peter cried._

_"No, that would've been Jasper, I simply ordered it to be done." She smiled beautifully, but there was something dangerous and evil behind it._

Alice lurched forward as if she could stop Maria from there. Jasper, who had been playing with a strand of her short hair while he waited for the vision to end, immediately cupped her face in his hand as he felt her distressed emotions. "Alice, Alice calm down, what happened? What is it?"

"Peter and Charlotte. I think Maria's going to find them. I think it was Maria at least. I don't know, but from how you described her..."

If it had been possible for him to pale, Jasper would have been three shades lighter. Without Peter and Charlotte, he might have still been with Maria, he would've still been depressed, he would have not have even of been with _Alice_ right then. With this in mind, Jasper knew he had to help his two old companions. His friends.

"Where? When? What _exactly _did you see?" Jasper pressed for more information.

"I—I don't know. There was a dirt road, and some fields. The sun was out but as far as I know no one else was around." Jasper pulled Alice off the ground and crushed her to his chest in a reassuring hug.

"Anything else to tell us where they are? A street sign or something, perhaps? How about when it's going to happen. Do you know?"

Alice shook her head. "I don't know Jasper, it could be happening in ten years, or as we speak!" There was a note of hysteria in her voice now, and Jasper slowly calmed her down.

"Just try to look again, Alice." He said patiently.

Alice closed her eyes to focus better, sifting through the different possible futures.

_"Go away Maria!" Peter yelled at the other vampire._

_"Not until I destroy you for deserting me, and then taking my best soldier!" She leapt at Peter, and he stumbled back into an old fence post._

Another:

_"Hah!"_

_"Charlotte!" Peter screamed her name as two newborns, quickly ripped her apart, tossing her into the fire as Maria laughed and Peter sobbed tearlessly as he waited for the same fate to befall him._

Alice winced as she looked for another one.

_"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" The petite woman started to circle around Peter and Charlotte slowly. Peter stepped in front of his mate protectively, a snarl tearing at his lips._

_The woman sunk into a crouch, ready to strike. "The traitor and the runaway, together forever..." She mocked._

_Suddenly Jasper was there, crouched in front of both Peter and Charlotte as Alice stood behind him, watching the newborns that Maria had brought along, looking as if they were tensed for a fight, which, they probably were._

"Got it!" Alice cried, and Jasper silently urged her to look more. "I'm seeing different versions, so it isn't happening _now. _But I don't know when it will be happening."

"Somewhere farther South, I'm sure of it. Not New Mexico, or Texas, but what are they even doing down there in the first place?" Jasper thought aloud, trying to figure out where his two friends might be to warn them of the danger that they were in. Their voices overlapped, both of them more talking to themselves then anything else.

Once Alice had a firm grasp on the one version of what was to come, she tried to look into this realm of possibilities only.

She looked into the future again, this time seeing a city that she supposed was nearby. "Cottonwood!" Alice cried out in the relief that Jasper felt wash over her at the same time.

Jasper turned his head to look sharply at Alice. "What?"

"I saw a sign, the name of the city is Cottonwood, there just outside of it, I'm 87% sure."

"Cottonwood...Cottonwood...Cottonwood, Arizona?"

"I don't know."

Jasper growled in frustration. "Can't you look any harder Alice!?" A small burst of hurt hit him, and Jasper froze. "I'm sorry, Alice, I didn't mean to, I mean—well,"

Alice brought a finger to his lips, cutting him off. "I know, you're worried about Peter and Charlotte, I get it. We'll find them, Jasper, I promise."

Jasper sighed. "It's no excuse for snapping at you. I apologize."

Alice smiled. "I forgive you. Now, get back to business," She commanded lightly. "It's somewhere in the south, and Arizona is considered part of the south, right?" Jasper shrugged, and Alice continued. "Well, how many towns can be called Cottonwood?"

She tugged on his arm, starting to pull him across the frozen pond, and she and Jasper skated over to the other side where their things lay discarded. "We'll go home," Alice started as she took off her skates and started to slip on her own shoes, motioning for Jasper to do the same, "And figure something out. We'll look for them now if we have to, even if we don't know when it will actually happen."

"Alright." Jasper agreed, slipping on a pair of boots. So together they headed back home to make a plan. Alice and Jasper ran through the forest, swift and silent before they were at the apartment building. They were in the building a little too quickly for a human, but no one was around, and right then, the two of them had a little more than that on their mind.

"So we think they're near Cottonwood, Arizona." Alice said as they got in the living room. She was running through everything that they knew. "We don't know when it's happening, but it will be sunny. Although, in Arizona, that doesn't mean much. We _are _going to be there when it happens, though, I can see it in all versions of the future, now. We're dead-set." She realized what she said, and despite the tense atmosphere, started to giggle a bit.

Alice slowly came to a stop with her giggling, and sighed, somber again, before heading into the bedroom in the back. "We should pack up some of our stuff, and take it with us, I don't think we'll be back here for a while." Digging around in the closet, Alice pulled the boxes that had been in the back, out, and started to throw her clothes and Jasper's in them.

"Vision?"

"No, just a feeling." Jasper was beside her then, helping Alice load all of her clothes into the boxes. "We'll have to leave the radio, and the record player, not enough room in the car." Alice added with a sigh.

Jasper nodded. "Yes. We should be able to bring everything else, though."

A few minutes later, Alice and Jasper had everything packed up in four boxes, and Jasper quickly grabbed the guitar Alice had given him for Christmas. It seem like so long ago since then, knowing what was going to happen now.

Alice shifted her load to one arm and used the other to lock the door after they got out of the apartment finally. She sighed and looked over at Jasper, who was looking at the door with a bit of longing, just like her. Neither of them wanted to leave their first real home, as they would probably be traveling from hotel to hotel for a little while again.

At the sound of a human heartbeat, both of them turned their heads to face the stairs, where John was slowly making his way up. Catching site of all their things boxed up, John froze. "Are you two going somewhere?"

"We're going out of town. Real last minute thing." Jasper told him, not really lying, just telling half-truths.

Alice nodded. "We don't know when we'll be back. I hope soon, but we can't be sure."

"Were you going to leave without saying good bye to anyone?"

"It's very urgent, we have to leave as quickly as we can. I hope you understand, John. Please say good bye to everyone else for us." Jasper explained.

John nodded and sighed. "Alright. I'll tell them bye for you. Good luck with whatever it is you're doing."

"Thank you." Alice told him sincerely, and Jasper nodded. They started heading down the hall to the stairwell, but John called back to them one last time.

"Try to keep in touch, if you're going to be gone for a while."

Alice turned and smiled, "We will." She told him, but Jasper felt her guilt just as she did because, in all reality, that might really not be true. Like she had said earlier, they would just have to hope. And ever since meeting Alice, Jasper had learned that he could have hope for the smallest of things.

Not fully ready to leave still, Alice and Jasper loaded their things into the back seat of the car slowly, trying to prolong their leaving as long as possible.

"When we show up, we're wearing clothes that are still in style right now. Regardless of how urgent things are, I wouldn't be caught wearing something that was _really _outdated, so that shortens are time frame quite a bit. I'd say the absolute _most _time it could be in would be about three or four years._" _Alice murmured to Jasper as they closed the back doors. Jasper nodded.

"I sincerely hope you are right, and that we can get there in time, Alice."

"We will." Alice assured him.

Jasper climbed into the passenger side like before, while Alice slid into the front seat. Now that they were positive that they would make it, Jasper couldn't help but look with longing at the place that had, for once in his life, been his home.

"Are you going to miss it?" Alice asked quietly.

Jasper nodded absently. "Yes," He murmured. "It has...become my home. And strangely, I've somehow developed..._friendships_ with these humans. I will miss them, but I know this is what we are supposed to do. Peter and Charlotte are more important than these meager humans whom I barely know."

But really, as he thought about it, wasn't his true home wherever Alice went, now? Why should he miss this place as much as he did?

Alice nodded in understanding. To his unasked questions, or his answer to her question, Jasper didn't know, but she lightly touched his shoulder in comfort before putting their Cadillac into drive, and pulling out of the lot. It was twilight, and occasional threads of sunlight hit the two of them, bathing them in it's light, and making their skin glitter subtly.

As they sped out of the city—well above speed limits—Alice and Jasper's hands found each other on the seat between the two of them. They glanced over at each other silently, then went back to staring out the front window stoically, just as the clock hit 12:00. And as others celebrated the all new year of 1949, Jasper and Alice held hands in the quiet and pretended that they weren't possibly going and killing themselves by facing Maria, and quite possibly, an entire newborn army.

The sun slipped down past the mountain tops, and darkness engulfed the pair of them. They passed the city limits at 120 miles per hour, still holding hands as they pulled farther and farther away from their old life, and on to the unknown—even for Alice.

_Finals are done! *Does happy dance* I'm 18 reviews short of 100 *Does even happier dance* and you guys have no idea how happy and thankful I am about that. To all of my reviewers, you are totally awesome, have a Jasper/Jackson plushie. To all my readers, even little 'Update. Now.' reviews make me feel warm and fuzzy, just because I know you like it enough to review._

_Y'know what's really funny/ironic? I'm going ice skating tonight, and I had the whole ice skating idea before I planned on going._

_Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns them, not mine. Do I look like SM?_

_~Tally_


	9. Cottonwood

Looking around uneasily, Jasper silently urged the pump to fill up the gas tank more quickly. Instead, as if it wanted to spite Jasper, it seemed to be moving impossibly slow. The sun was out and shining, but Alice had promised that so long as he stayed in the shade of the overhang, all would be fine. Alice was paying the boy working there for the gas, and she turned to smile at Jasper tensely before turning to listen to whatever the human was saying.

They were in Oklahoma, on the border between there and Colorado. Jasper insisted that they avoid both New Mexico and Texas, even if it was the quickest route.

Alice slid into the passenger seat (as she had taken to simply doing, letting Jasper drive) and waited for Jasper to finish filling the gas tank. They had practically been running on vapors, and it was finally time to refill.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, the tank was full, and Jasper thankfully sank into the driver's seat. The windows were tinted enough that they could drive in the sun, so long as no one looked _too _closely, and Alice could always warn them of when that would happen.

"I'm going to half to hunt soon." Jasper said in a sigh, rubbing his eyes wearily, though realistically, he wasn't supposed to get tired.

"We'll go soon. Anyway, we'll have to have full strength to go against Maria." Jasper nodded, not wanting to point out that really, if they wanted full strength, they should kill a human. He knew how well _that _would go over with Alice. Not at all, that was how well.

Alice watched Jasper and noticed the way that Jasper's eyes were tight, and how he looked around warily. Like the first day in the diner, like he was waiting for someone to strike him. In a way, Alice supposed that she could understand that. She had quickly realized earlier that it got more and more pronounced the closer they got to the old territories that he had used to inhabit.

"I know you don't want to, but maybe we _should _just drive straight through New Mexico, we'll get there quicker..." Alice suggested tentatively.

"No!" Jasper growled.

Alice frowned, but said nothing. Pulling out of the gas station, Jasper immediately sped up before they even hit the highway. Alice had pinpointed the vague date of when Maria would find Peter and Charlotte, and it was going to happen sometime that month.

"Jasper...what happens if we're too late?" Alice said, carefully choosing how to say it. She didn't want to upset him or something, he was already stressed enough as it was.

"We won't be. We can't." Jasper glared out the front window, and Alice sighed before turning and staring out the window. Jasper was on edge, Alice didn't have to be an empath to know that.

She watched the sparse land pass by, sighing heavily. Ever since she had gotten her first vision of Peter and Charlotte being found by Maria, both Alice and Jasper had grown quiet, sad. Jasper had been a bit snippy, but Alice knew it was because of all the stress. Truthfully, she was just waiting for him to snap. One would think that an empath would know better than to keep your emotions quiet, but that just seemed the way Jasper was.

They drove in silence for a while longer, before Jasper sighed and said grudgingly, "Fine...maybe it would be faster if we went straight through New Mexico. If we stay way up in Northern New Mexico, it should be fine."

"I can check." Alice offered. Jasper nodded, and Alice's eyes glazed over. Jasper kept his eyes trained on the road. Technically, he didn't have a license, and he hadn't even be driving all the long, so it was probably better to focus on the empty road. No one else was on the road, but he didn't want to risk it. Not that they would be hurt if there was ever an accident, but if a cop showed up...

He heard a sigh of relief, and Jasper glanced swiftly at her from the corner of his eye before looking to the street again. "What?"

"We'll make it through, no problem at all, and we'll get there in time. The vision is getting more sharp—more clearly defined. It's going to happen soon, I can tell."

"I wish this wasn't happening." Jasper murmured, and Alice nodded in agreement.

"As do I. And after so much happiness, too. Things were going great, and now? We're going to save Peter and Charlotte from a bloodthirsty vampire who wants revenge, and badly."

"Do we know how she'll react when she sees me? I know she probably isn't to happy with me, either."

Alice smiled. "You won't be hurt." She said confidently before her smile faltered. "At least, not when she first sees us." Suddenly filled with nervousness and worry, Jasper gently soothed her emotions, making her calm again.

"Everything will be fine." He assured.

"I hope so." It was so quiet, that even Jasper barely heard it, despite being right next to Alice, and having such acute vampire senses.

"Think about something happier," Jasper pleaded, not liking her looking so glum, or her emotions felling so down, for that matter. "Like...the wedding! Why don't you think about that for a while. Would you like a small wedding, or a large, extravagant wedding?" He would say anything to make her happy again.

Just as Jasper planned, thoughts of the wedding immediately made Alice perk up. "Small." She said right away.

Jasper nodded. "Alright, small it is."

"I can't have a dress _off the rack, _though. That would be horrible, definitely designer."

"Never off the rack." Jasper agreed somberly, only half-paying attention.

"Where should it be?" Alice asked—more rhetorical than anything. "And for that matter, when? Oh, there's so much to plan, if only Esme and Rosalie were here to help me." Jasper turned his head to look at Alice. "We're going to get in an accident if you don't keep your eyes on the road." Alice said casually.

Jasper turned back to the front window. "Not like we would get hurt." He muttered to himself.

"Yes, but it would look a little strange for the two of us to walk out of the wreckage completely unscathed."

Unwillingly, his eyes flickered back over to Alice after a short pause. "Would you like to wait until after we meet the Cullens?" Jasper asked finally.

Alice hesitated before she shook her head and sighed, "No. It's not so much that I want them to be there—enough that I would postpone it—but more I wish I had someone to share this with. someone who knows how important this is. Obviously I can't talk to the groom about it. Girl Talk."

"Well...there is always Charlotte. She could always identify with you, to a certain degree. I don't think she and Peter have been married officially. That _is _how most of our kind are." Then he added thoughtfully, more to himself than anything, "But then again, we aren't like most of our kind."

Thoughts of Peter and Charlotte, and the predicament they were in made Alice and Jasper fall quiet again, silently wishing there was some way they could warn the two, unfortunately, they didn't have any connections with the couple.

Alice was about to say something, but before she could, Jasper heard a gasp. He turned to look over at her, and saw that she was having a vision. Jasper tore his eyes away from her, knowing that Alice would tell him what was going to happen when it was over.

"There is going to be seven of them." Alice whispered suddenly.

"What?" Jasper asked, not getting what she was saying.

"Seven newborns, not counting Maria." She repeated.

"Eight in all." He mused to himself before it really hit him. "That would be two to one." His thoughts immediately went to Alice, so tiny, fighting _two _bloodthirsty newborns that would be so much stronger than _him. _Jasper didn't want to think about how it would be for them to go against Alice. An animal? She could take one down in no time at all, that was one thing, but another vampire, not even a year old? "It can't come to fighting. I won't let it." Jasper told her firmly.

"I don't want to lose you. Not after I've finally found you. Not to your old life." Alice admitted quietly.

"Im not going back to that life Alice." Jasper promised her.

"But what if you," She swallowed loudly. "What if you get hurt, or...or _die!_" Jasper quickly sent her a wave of calm before hysterics could begin. He couldn't handle hysterics, not from anybody, much less Alice.

"I won't. I promise. We'll all get out of there—alive."

"Right. Alive." Jasper could still feel the nervousness that Alice tried to hide.

"Hey, I said we would get to those Cullens of yours, and we're _going _to get to those Cullens, okay?"

Alice nodded, more sure now, even without Jasper's help. "Right."

They drove in silence then, both Alice and Jasper lost in their own thoughts. Minutes turned to hours, and eventually, they crossed the border into Arizona with the intense speed that they were at. The trip that far had taken almost one third the time it should have at the fast speed they were going at. The tense atmosphere suddenly relaxed minimally, and Alice looked over at Jasper, smiling slightly but still tensely.

"Almost there." She murmured aloud.

Jasper nodded in agreement. "Yes. Almost there."

****

Alice looked at the sign fleetingly, welcoming them to Cottonwood, Arizona. She searched the future again, trying once again to pinpoint when it would happen, but found nothing that could really help. Alice looked down at her rumpled clothes, a little disgruntled with the fact that neither of them had been able to change because of their need to get there as soon as possible. She took in her maroon colored dress before it really registered what she was wearing. Distraught now, Alice searched the future twice as hard.

_"Come on," Jasper said, opening his door quickly. "We'll catch their scent better if we're outside. No one is around, we're well out of the city. Besides, we can run faster than we can drive."_

_He stepped out into the sun and scanned their surroundings carefully._

Just like her, the Jasper in his vision was wearing the same thing as the real Jasper. "Jasper," She moaned, understanding what this meant. "I think it's happening today! We have to hurry!" Jasper nodded tensely and the car accelerated. Cottonwood flew by in a blur of speed. Grocery store. Hardware. Diner.

"It's sunny!" Alice wailed frantically when she looked out the window. "Jasper it's going to happen _today, _I'm positive now. It's outside the town somewhere, but I don't know _where! _It could be happening this instant."

Jasper fingers tightened around the steering wheel. "You still see us there, so we have to get there in time. We'll drive out of the city and look around from there."

Alice gasped. "She just found them." She whispered. Jasper's eyes narrowed, and he stiffened slightly in the seat.

Alice buried her head in her hands while Jasper sped the car up. "We'll get there in time. We _will _get there in time." He told himself quietly. In mere minutes, Alice looked up when the motion of the car suddenly stopped. "Come on," Jasper said, opening his door quickly. "We'll catch their scent better if we're outside. No one is around, we're well out of the city. Besides, we can run faster than we can drive."

He stepped out into the sun and scanned their surroundings carefully.

Alice nodded and opened her own door. The sun shone down brightly, and the both glittered as much as the engagement ring on Alice's finger. Jasper closed his eyes, trying to catch a familiar scent. Peter, Charlotte, hell even Maria's scent would work right then. Turning his head to the left, Jasper froze as a gust of wind hit him full force from that direction. "They're that way, Alice."

Alice nodded again slightly, already running ahead. She ran through the trees, dodging around any branches that were actually low enough to hit her. "We'll make it!" She called over her shoulder quietly. Jasper guessed that she must have had a vision or something, though her pace never once wavered. He gave a curt nod at her cry, although she couldn't see it.

They stopped when the scent of other vampires drew much closer. Jasper wished that the familiar scent wasn't quite so familiar. Unfortunately, he would know it anywhere. Maria was here, just as Alice knew she would be. He had known that they would run into her soon, but actually being in such close proximity with his past, well, Jasper wanted more than anything to be able to wake up and find out that walking straight up to Maria was only a nightmare.

Too bad vampires couldn't sleep.

At the edge of the trees, Alice peered out before glancing back at Jasper, reminding him silently what was about to happen. Ten vampires, just as Alice had predicted. The seven newborns, Maria, and Peter and Charlotte. Peter was standing protectively in front of Charlotte, although she looked just as fierce and ready to fight Maria as he did.

Jasper took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Opening them finally, he locked his eyes on his creator from so long ago, and stepped out of the cover of the trees. Alice followed after, their skin sparkling and the sun shining, such a contrast from the emotions in the air. In an instant, Jasper was in front of Maria, Alice right behind him, watching the newborns warily while still paying attention to Jasper and Marie behind her.

"Hello Maria." Jasper said cordially, and Alice noticed the way his accent was more pronounced now. "Long time no see."

_WOW! 27 reviews on this chapter alone, and I got over 100! You guys are the best! Also, wish Jackson Rathbone a happy belated birthday, he is now 24 years old!_

_Okay, question. For characters such as Maria or Peter and Charlotte, whom Stephenie Meyer created, but we never met them, so we know nothing of their character, when we write about them, would they be considered an OC? Because technically, we make them exactly as we want, the only thing that we had to follow was their name (and perhaps a past, in this case)._

_I now have a story banner that I posted on photobucket, go on my profile and I have a link to it in my stories section._

_Disclaimer: Nothing is mine. Cottonwood is a real place to, so I can't even claim ownership for it, either._

_~Tally_


	10. Maria

Maria took a step back in surprise, shock flickering across her face before she quickly covered it up. She suddenly grinned wickedly. "My, my, it has been a while, Jasper darling." She crooned softly.

Looking at her, Alice could see immediately why Jasper had stayed as long as he had with Maria. She had a soft, young look, but with curves that obviously belonged to a woman. She was slight, only a little taller than Alice herself. At first glance, anyone would feel this _need _to protect her. Beneath the nice exterior though, was the fierce, vile, evil, truth. Maria was the epitome of a monster. Her eyes were a bright red. Red and bloodthirsty, but at that moment, it wasn't humans' blood that she craved. No, right then, Alice knew, she wanted Jasper gone. Dead.

Alice longed to step between the silent face off between Jasper and Maria, but she had to keep watch on the newborns, who were waiting for Maria's signal eagerly. For what, Alice didn't know, or particularly want to know.

"We could have been wonderful together, you and me. Think of all the territories that could have been ours, Jasper. The multitude of humans," Maria frowned then. "but of course, you don't _hunt _humans anymore." She sneered.

Jasper said nothing, not taking the bait.

Maria scowled, she had obviously been wanting to get reaction out of him. "All because of _her, _too." Jasper moved subtly to shield Alice completely from Maria. "How long have you been with her? A few years? Less? More? It's nothing compared to how long _we've _been together, Jasper."

Jasper snarled, and Maria smiled, a glint in her eyes now. "I hit a soft spot, I see. The Jasper Whitlock _I _knew had no soft spots. I suppose I could just..._eliminate _the problem." Her eyes flashed past Jasper to where Alice was standing, her eyes doing nothing to hide the excitement that the prospect brought.

"Leave Alice out of this." Jasper hissed menacingly.

Maria's tinkling laugh disoriented Alice for a moment. Such a laugh didn't seem to fit someone as horrible as Maria. There was a hint of menace to it though, Alice noted, if she listened close enough.

"Jasper, you went AWOL. You left when you didn't have the right to. Surely you can see why you must be punished." Abruptly, her smile fell. With a flick of her hand, she ordered the newborns, "Bring them."

The seven newborns, with their superior strength, easily grabbed the four older vampires, not letting it come to a fight, which even they sensed they would lose, looking at Jasper's battle scar covered skin. Jasper snarled when one of them grabbed Alice roughly, pulling her hands behind her back and forcing her after where Maria had disappeared into the trees. It only took seconds for them to get Peter, Charlotte, and Jasper to follow closely after.

When they arrived in a clearing a little ways away, Maria was already there, circling Alice in the middle, the newborn standing off to the side.

"Leave her alone! Don't touch her!" If you hurt a hair on her head I'll kill you!" Jasper shouted at Maria. The newborns bared their teeth at him for threatening their leader, but Maria ignored them.

She stepped closer to Alice and pulled a single strand of hair off her of her scalp, letting it fall lifelessly to the ground. "There. I won't hurt a hair on that pretty little head of hers."

Her expression turned gleeful. Sadistic. She sunk into a crouch then. "I suppose I should simply get it over with."

Alice closed her eyes, not saying anything. Maria assumed she was giving up, but Jasper understood quickly what she was doing. Maria leapt forward, but Alice stepped to the side lithely, having already seen Maria's plan.

After a few different—and unsuccessful—tries, Maria straightened up from her crouch. Jasper let out the breath he had unconsciously been holding.

Maria laughed. "I like you. I think we can keep you around for a little bit longer." She told Alice before turning to the other newborns. "Put them in the tent. All of you on guard. Don't let them out of your sight. You can take shifts to hunt." Maria stalked off the field, amused and angered simultaneously. Jasper wasn't paying attention to her anymore, though.

He rushed forward and caught Alice in his embrace. the other vampire snarled in warning, but they ignored them. "Don't _do _that again." Jasper reprimanded, breathing in her scent. "I got scared half to death when I saw you there." He admitted, using a human saying.

One newborn stepped forward, more brave—or stupid—than the rest. He ushered them into a small tent that was set up, the other six pushing Peter and Charlotte in after them.

"Well," Peter finally said, taking off the 'cowboy' hat he was wearing. "This is quite a predicament we've gotten ourselves into."

****

"Great, just great!" Jasper cried in frustration, throwing his hands up in the air and scowling around the empty tent. Maria was obviously planning on doing something, but for the past three days, all they had been doing was sitting in the tent they had first been kicked into. His eyes were starting to get black, and he was starting to get irritated. "Not even a visit. Not a taunt, not a 'Haha, now you're going to die.' What is _with _her? Can she hurry up and decide what to do with us?" He called out loudly then to Maria, "Get on with it, woman!"

Clearly more than 'starting to get irritated.'

"She's trying to decide between killing us all, or forcing you guys to join her again. She doesn't know what do with me. She doesn't want us to be together." Alice told Jasper softly, placing a tender hand on his forearm.

Charlotte sat down on the ground in dejection. "This is exactly what we were running from when we left." She murmured. Peter got down on his knees to comfort her, giving Jasper a meaningful look.

Jasper sighed, now done with his rant, and calmed Charlotte down. "It's okay, Lottie." Peter comforted her. "It's only been three days, we'll be out of here in no time. Right guys?"

Alice got down to comfort Charlotte too. "Of course. Don't worry Charlotte, we'll definitely get out of here soon."

"Yeah." Jasper mumbled his agreement..

"Alice," Peter started tentatively. "Do you think you could..._look _and see if—when?"

Alice nodded. "Sure." Instead of finding if, no, _when _they would leave, Alice found something else.

_"People are starting to get suspicious." Edward stated to the rest of his family. "We've been here for four years, and Carlisle, you haven't changed at all. Emmett, Rosalie, and I have all already graduated, I think we should move again soon."_

_"East coast!" Emmett cried in excitement, pumping a fist into the air._

_"Not New York." Was all Rosalie said._

_"Maine?" Esme suggested._

_"I know of one little town in West Virginia..." Carlisle trailed off._

_"Elkins?" Edward asked, pulling the name out of Carlisle's train of thought. Carlisle nodded._

_"I stayed there for a little while when I was traveling alone."_

_"I visited an aunt that lived down there...I think." Rosalie added._

_"Anybody object?" Edward asked. Nobody said anything, so he shrugged. "Elkins it is then, I guess."_

Alice groaned. She wanted to be mad, to throw a fit, but she knew that it wasn't anybody's fault. Her and Jasper were just very unlucky right now. "What's wrong?" Jasper asked her, noticing the upset emotions she was now emanating.

"The Cullens are now moving to Elkins—where we just were!"

Jasper sighed. "I'm sorry, Alice. I know how upset you are, trust me."

Peter looked up at them from where he was sitting with Charlotte. "What are you two talking about?"

"We're trying to find a coven like us. They don't drink human blood." Peter grimaced, but Alice ignored this and went on. "Carlisle Cullen is at the head of the coven. They're more like a _family _though, right Jasper?" Jasper nodded silently in agreement.

"Carlisle?" Charlotte asked, looking up now.

"Yeah, do you two know him?"

"We met him once, briefly. It was on our way to return to get Jasper here, actually. We ran into him. Very nice man. He was all alone then, though."

"Four others have joined him now. They've all adopted his lifestyle."

Charlotte shook her head in amazement. "I don't know _how _you two do it. Animals hardly smell appetizing, they must taste horrible."

Alice shrugged. "You get used to it. Besides, so long as you avoid herbivores," She made a face. "And only go for large animals—bear, mountain lion—then it really isn't too much different from humans, except I don't feel like a murderer."

Jasper nodded. "I no longer have to feel the horror and pain of my prey as I kill them." He added quietly.

Peter just shrugged. "To each his own, I guess."

The tent flap was pulled back suddenly, and they all looked toward the front where a girl was standing there. She couldn't have been older than 15. Jasper noticed the way she was nervous and wary, with threads of fear mixed in. "Maria wants to see you." She told them. "So, uh...get out there." She clearly wasn't too happy with ordering around older, more experienced vampires who could possibly rip her apart and throw the pieces into a fire, if they wanted. As if they had the means, Jasper almost scoffed aloud at her fear, but, he supposed, it was better than her thinking that she could actually win in a fight against any of them.

Another vampire came marching up, a man this time. "What's taking so long?!" He demanded, glaring at the girl. "Maria's getting impatient." Very need to please, Jasper decided. He reminded Jasper of himself when he was first changed.

Jasper sent the girl a burst of over-confidence, and she threw a glare at the other man. "Well tell Maria that she can just go—"

He growled and dropped into a crouch for almost insulting Maria. She mimicked his actions. The man leapt forward, his teeth bared, aiming for her neck. She sidestepped and then went for his shoulder blade.

The girl grabbed his wrist and started to pull back, trying to rip him apart. Her wide eyes shone with excitement, and Jasper tried to calm her down now, to no avail.

"Stop! Stop! _Stop it!_" Maria suddenly screamed as she hurried into the clearing. She looked half-crazed, her hair, tangled and in knots, blowing wildly and her eyes a bright red that were brimming with anger. She had a snarl on her lips, ready to lunge at the newborns if they didn't obey her order.

No longer influenced by Jasper's power, the girl immediately backed down, and the male reached for his discarded arm that she had thrown to the ground. He winced, attaching it back on to his body, but Maria paid him no mind. She continued screaming at all the newborns.

Meanwhile, Jasper was thinking over the fight that had just happened. If they could just get that to happen again then maybe some of the newborns would destroy themselves. Fighting among newborn vampires was common, he could mess with their emotions and then play it off as a fight over something trivial. Once, when he was first with Maria, one newborn had killed another, simply because he had 'gotten too close.'

Maria was done yelling at the newborns, and was now on the verge of telling him and the others something. Jasper sighed, he really didn't want to deal with Maria right now, or ever, actually. He sent her a shot of weariness, frustration, and annoyance. She eyed him once, knowing he was to blame for her sudden mood swing, but growled out, "I _don't _want to have to deal with all of you right now! Get them back in the tent!" She stalked off, and Jasper smiled in relief.

"What was that?" Peter stage-whispered loudly to Jasper.

Jasper smiled, and the other vampires growled at them in warning. The two newborns that had been fighting were now off licking their wounds somewhere—metaphorically, of course.

Peter and Charlotte slipped back in silently. Alice glanced at Jasper once before following them in. Jasper stepped in so that he was at the very edge, a clear view of their 'guard.'

"Get back in there." She told him.

"Why should I?" Jasper challenged. She glowered at him, but said nothing. The others watched silently, wondering what he was doing. "I honestly don't think Maria would be too happy if you killed me, but hey, you could always try. Let's see how that turns out."

She looked tempted to take him up on the offer, but Jasper carefully made her uncertain slowly, so she wouldn't notice as quickly, if at all. The girl bit her lip, unsure of what to say now. "Maria wouldn't care. Maybe at first, but she would get over it." She bluffed, her facial expression and emotions giving away the lie.

Jasper leaned back leisurely, not giving way to the nervousness that he was really feeling. "Go ahead and try it then."

Her eyes scanned the trees, as if afraid Maria would suddenly appear out of nowhere.

"What's your name?" Both Jasper and the newborn looked over toward Alice, who had asked the question seemingly at random.

"I—uh, Lizzie." Lizzie was taken off guard at the unorthodox question.

"Hello Lizzie, I'm Alice." Alice greeted kindly, smiling warmly.

Jasper caught on to what she was doing. It was the same thing he had being planning by getting the newborns to fight amongst themselves. If they became friendly with Lizzie, then she might be more hesitant if it came to fighting. Alice was probably already aware of what he had been planning for the other newborns, clever as she was. "Hi Lizzie, my name is Jasper."

Lizzie nodded, now confused. Jasper nodded mentally. Good, confused was good. He made her slightly more trusting, but not enough to alert her that something was wrong. "I know. Maria told me about you. And them." She motioned toward Peter and Charlotte.

"We didn't know about her, though." She added, gesturing toward Alice this time..

"And what did Maria tell you about us?" Jasper asked kindly. He could sense Peter and Charlotte's confusion, as well as their wariness.

"She said that...that you abandoned her, and we had to find all three of you to get revenge. You don't argue with Maria, not if you want to live."

Jasper nodded in understanding. "That's why we had to leave, Lizzie. Peter, Charlotte, and I? We didn't like the fight. We grew tired of it, I was depressed, so they helped me escape. Tell me Lizzie, how long have you been like this? When were you changed?"

Lizzie grew more comfortable with him, and smiled shyly. "A little less than a year."

"Oh?" Jasper was surprised, he had thought that Maria would have brought younger, stronger vampires, not one that she would soon be getting rid of. "Lizzie, do you know what Maria does with the vampires she has created after they've passed their year mark?"

"She says that she let's them leave, so as not to frighten us into leaving, but we know she really kills them." Lizzie shuddered.

"If you came with us, Lizzie, you wouldn't be killed. Do you want to end your life?" Alice asked, stepping closer and placing a hand on Jasper's shoulder, who was sitting on the ground beside Lizzie.

"But you don't hunt humans, do you?" She made a face at the idea of their diet.

"No, but we could help you escape, and then you could travel on your own." Alice suggested.

"I—," She looked torn, and was about to say something more when another vampire stomped toward them angrily.

"Hey! What are you doing? You're not supposed to be talking to them."

"Lizzie," Jasper dropped his voice to a whisper so only she could hear him. "We could help you, right now. The five of us are more experienced, we could fight them."

"Maria told me about you," The approaching vampire called. "Don't listen to him, and don't trust your emotions, he can manipulate them!"

Lizzie whipped around to look at Jasper with wide eyes. "Lizzie, you're just a pawn to Maria, don't listen to them." Jasper continued urgently.

Lizzie glared at Jasper before turning around and staring stoically at the forest in front of her. Ignoring him. Great.

Jasper sighed and rested his head between his knees. She would've caved if that other vampire hadn't come. Alice frowned and sat down next to Jasper. "We'll figure something else out." She assured Jasper.

"What was all of that?" Peter asked.

Alice sighed. "We were trying to convince her to help us get out of here, in turn we would have protected her from Maria. We were also," She dropped her voice so low that only those three could hear her. "We were also going to try to get two of them to start fighting. If one killed the other, then they would be left without two, and we would gain one. We would've been able to beat them then. Too bad it didn't exactly work out."

"Just like you said Alice, we'll figure something else out." Jasper agreed, closing his eyes and leaning his head back. Had he been human, it would have looked like he was asleep. As it was, Jasper was only trying to relax.

Alice, Peter, and Charlotte continued talking quietly, and Jasper simply listened, his arm wrapped around Alice's waist protectively.

"Maria's plans are becoming more defined. She still has a couple different ideas that she's tossing around, but she's decided to actually _do _something." Alice whispered to them after the sun had slipped beneath the mountains, although none of them could actually see the sunset as it happened.

Jasper smirked then, and his arm tightened from where it was resting around her. With his eyes still closed, Jasper murmured, "Bring it, Maria. I've been ready since the day I left."

_Okay, so I have the next chapter typed up, but I'm ending it on a cliffhanger, so I can either post that tomorrow and then post the next chapter a couple days after, or you can wait a few more days and I'll post them one after the other. Which way do you want? Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!_

_Disclaimer: I own nothing._

_~Tally_


	11. Trapped

Day: 8

Thirst. That was the most prominent feeling that Jasper could register. Scorching, burning, and torturing him. It had been eight days since he had last hunted. Alice brushed the hair out of his eyes, understanding what was wrong. Her eyes were getting dark, but she had so much more experience than him. Jasper's eyes were the blackest of black.

"Alice..." Jasper moaned. "I need to hunt. _Soon._"

"I know Jazz, I know. We could always...ask Maria." Alice suggested tentatively.

"You know she won't allow us to."

"Actually, I don't, not until you decide to ask her."

Jasper sighed. "Fine." He poked his head out of the tent. "Let me talk to Maria." He told them.

"Why should we?"

"Because I told you to." He growled at them, but they stared back, determined not to back down.

Maria stepped forward over to where Jasper was. "Yes, Jasper?"

"We need to hunt." He told her simply. Straight-forward and to the point, as Maria didn't care for beating around the bush, and right then, as much as he hated to admit it, he needed to be on her good side.

Maria laughed. "Of course, what was I thinking. Don't worry, something will be brought."

Jasper blinked. That had been easy, too easy considering this was _Maria. _She was planning something, he could tell. Jasper had known her for much too long.

Alice gave Jasper a look. "That was—"

"—Too easy, yeah." Jasper finished.

"We'll just have to wait and see why she caved, I guess." Alice murmured, sitting down in Jasper's lap.

****

Jasper felt the emotional shift before he smelled the human. But when he did, it took all of Alice's strength to keep him there. The terrified emotions helped Jasper calm down, but after going so long with hunting of any sort, he almost leapt out and onto the human immediately.

"Jasper, Peter, Charlotte, Alice, you can come out..." Maria called in a soft voice, sounding almost innocent and child-like. Jasper snorted. Innocent, _right..._

Maria threw open the tent flap and practically kicked them out. The human man was lying on the ground, terrified and nervous and upset. There were tear tracks running down his cheeks on his face. "Please," He begged. "I have a family. A daughter and wife at home."

Alice looked at the man with pity, keeping a firm arm on Jasper to keep him from lashing out and killing the fragile human. Peter and Charlotte, on the other hand, were in ecstasy.

"He's yours." Maria drawled before leaving the clearing. The newborns eyed the man frantically, practically jumping on him.

Charlotte growled at them. "He's ours."

"Alice..." Jasper moaned, looking over at his mate.

"No Jasper. Control yourself." She told him softly before calling to Peter and Charlotte, "Don't spill any blood please."

Charlotte bit the man's neck quickly, sucking his blood out, while Peter did the same to his wrist. The newborns went crazy, but Peter and Charlotte had enough control to at least share the human between themselves.

Jasper watched them with a frenzied look in his eye. "He has a wife and child Jasper." Alice reasoned, her hand moving to his. She tightened her grip on him though, just in case.

"He's already going to die though. Just. One. Little. Taste."

"No!" Alice said harshly.

Jasper looked as if he might argue, but when he saw the look in her eyes, disappointment, covered by love, he seemed to realize what he was about to do. He grit his teeth together and squeezed his eyes shut. "I will _not _give up now, not when it will give Maria the satisfaction she wants. Not when it will disappoint you."

Charlotte moaned as the man was finally drained of the last drop of blood. "So _wonderful..._"

Jasper grimaced when he saw his friends' now red eyes. "Maria's coming." Alice announced to them.

Alice was right. Maria swiftly and silently walked over to them, observing the human corpse that was lying on the ground. Her eyes flickered up briefly to all of their eyes. First Peter and Charlotte, with their red eyes, and then Jasper and Alice, their eyes still black. She 'hmmed.' "You didn't take it. You let them _share _a measly little human, and you just stood by and watched. So pathetic." She spat at him.

Jasper glared at her so menacingly that Maria unwillingly flinched ever so slightly. Despite that, she met his eyes, and they started a staring match. It would have been comical to Alice if she didn't know what would happen to the loser. Of course, since they didn't have to blink, there might not be a loser.

Jasper finally broke the eyes contact and glanced around at the rest of the newborns angrily before taking Alice's hand and leading her back to their prison silently, Peter and Charlotte following after them.

"I don't get why we don't just fight them off, we could so take them, it's two to one, we've had worse than that, Jasper." Peter exclaimed quietly.

"You, Charlotte, and I have been trained to fight like that, but what about..." Jasper glanced toward Alice.

Peter and Charlotte realized what he was talking about. "I'm sure she would make it." Charlotte reassured him.

"Stop talking about me like I'm not here!" Alice cried angrily.

"Alice," Jasper pleaded. "I don't want to risk losing you. Please, I don't want to start a fight we might not win, or if we do, we might..._lose _too. If she starts a fight, then we will fight back, but I will not initiate it." Peter opened his mouth to retaliate, but Jasper cut him off. "And I won't help you if _you _initiate it, either."

That was lie, and any of them could probably call him on it, but instead they said nothing, all of them falling silent.

"Maria's really indecisive." Alice stated, trying to break the tense atmosphere. It worked, Jasper gave a bark of a laugh and turned to look at Alice.

"She always was. Maria would make the multitude of plans, and I would pick the best one and help her execute it." He said ruefully.

"So what is she thinking of doing?" Peter asked.

Alice shrugged. "Who to kill, who to keep. Or if she should just kill all of us." She said it nonchalantly, but Jasper felt how scared she really was.

"We're getting to the Cullens." He reminded her firmly. "We're getting out of here alive."

****

Day: 14

If Jasper had thought that going 8 days without hunting was hard, then going 14 days had to be hell. It felt to Jasper as if he would die from dehydration like a human that hadn't drank anything in three measly days. Unfortunately, he had to live with this burning throat, because they couldn't die from something trivial like that.

"It feels like I've started all over, before I met you when I would go as long as possible without hunting." Jasper confessed.

"It's okay Jasper, we'll get through this." Alice told him, running her fingers through his hair as Jasper sat on the ground. She stood next to him, for once taller than her lover.

"I hope so." Jasper put his head in his hands in defeat.

Alice sat down in front of him and lifted Jasper's chin up to look him in the eyes. She gave him a small smile, and Jasper pulled her into his lap. "Happy anniversary," Alice sighed, knowing how depressing it was to say that when you were locked up.

Jasper buried his face in her hair, breathing in her scent. "Happy anniversary." He whispered back to her.

****

Day: 17

Alice jerked forward from where she had been leaning against Jasper in boredom. Her eyes glazed over, and Jasper knew she was having a vision. He took her hand in his own, silently comforting her as she gasped again.

The vision ended, and Alice glanced over at Peter and Charlotte before turning back to Jasper.

"She's decided." Was all she said, fear in her eyes betraying her.

_Unbearably short, and the next one probably will be too, but I'm hoping on posting them close together, so hopefully that will make up for it, I just don't think they would fit well together as a single chapter. It's really to just show the passing of time that the group has had to go through with Maria._

_Merry (late) Christmas and a Happy New Year!_

_Disclaimer: Still don't own it._

_~Tally (though I am more commonly referred to as 'Tibby' instead)_


	12. The Escape

_A/N: Perhaps a bit anticlimactic...okay a lot, please don't rag on me like Stephenie Meyer's Breaking Dawn ending. Obviously they both have to get the Cullens', and if you've read Midnight Sun, you'd know that Peter and Charlotte are still alive, so you know they all get out. This is a warning, it's kind of anticlimactic, if you want to skip this chapter, it's not really needed to the story line, so long as you know they escape._

"What?" Jasper asked in shock.

"She's finally decided what to do with us."

"Alice, what is Maria planning?" Jasper met her eyes and felt the panic that her emotions betrayed her of.

"She..." Alice swallowed. "She's going to kill the three of us." she motioned to Peter, Charlotte, and herself. "And take you back to Texas. She thinks you're too valuable to just kill."

Jasper wrapped his arms around Alice. "I didn't want it to come to this, but we fight. No way any of us go down without a fight." his arms tightened around her. "If only at least one of us was at full strength."

Alice sighed and looked up into Jasper's hard eyes, slipping back into his old lifestyle. "I wish this didn't have to come to fighting. You've seen so much already, you should have had enough fighting to last any lifetime, vampire or human."

They suddenly heard Maria, "Bring them out. We've kept them here too long. It's time to do something." Jasper dropped his arms with a sigh and instead kept a firm hold on Alice's hand. He glanced once at the opening of the tent before gently leading her out, Peter and Charlotte following after.

"Jasper," Peter whispered, though they could all hear him. "You know with none of us at full strength, we won't be able to take them. I know I wanted to try at first, but not now. Why try? You could keep yourself alive if we don't fight. Come on man, self-preservation first, that's what you always said." He was trying to knock sense into his long-time friend. Why not at least keep himself alive?

"It's different now." Jasper snapped, glancing at Alice. "I'm not going down or giving up without at least trying. You can give up, but you'll just be killed that much faster."

Peter winced but glanced back at his own Charlotte. "Fine."

Alice glanced down at the engagement ring that was still on her finger. "There's so many things that we never got to do, Jasper."

"I know Ali, I know."

The newborns were standing in a loose circle, all of them eyeing Jasper and the others with ill-concealed excitement. Maria was watching them carefully.

"So what are you going to try to do, Jasper?" Maria taunted. "Try to fight me—_us_?" she motioned toward the other newborns. "If you give yourself up, you won't be hurt. If you start a fight, you'll all be killed." Jasper stayed where he was standing, glaring at Maria. Maria sighed and dropped her hands. "Do you really want to get yourself killed?"

"I'd rather fight for love then give up and lose her." he looked at Alice, sending her wave after wave of so much love to really show how much he loved her.

Alice gasped, and at first Jasper thought it was because of the onslaught of emotion, but then he realized she was having another vision.

When it ended, where there was once submission and surrender in her emotions, she now felt hope and relief. Happiness, even.

Maria took a step closer and glanced once more at the newborns. She was about to say something, when somebody suddenly burst into the clearing. "Maria!" he cried.

The vampire had mexican features, and was probably not a newborn. Maria turned to look at the man and recognition sparked in her eyes. "Rafael, why the hell are you here? You're supposed to be governing the others. They're probably already killing themselves!"

"It's the Villanueva coven! Maria, they found out you were gone and attacked! Three others are all that's left now, not including me." Maria's eyes widened and she cursed under her breath.

"I—how?"

"One of our own." Rafael said gravely.

Maria hissed and her eyes flickered to Jasper before she looked back at Rafael. "We have to get back there..."

Jasper took this as his chance to speak up. "We aren't going with you Maria. You can go ahead and try to get rid of us, but I know we can take out at least two of your newborns if it comes to that, maybe more, before you can kill us all, and you can't afford that right now. Try to get us to go with you, we'll just run."

Maria glared at Jasper, knowing he was right. "When did they attack?" she asked Rafael harshly, still keeping her eyes trained on Jasper.

"Last night. I think he's planning another attack. We got rid of five of them, he's down to thirteen, but I think he's planning on attacking again. We can't lose Mexico city, _again._"

"I," Maria looked at all of the vampire under her control then back at Jasper, Alice, Peter, and Charlotte. "Go back as quick as you can, we'll follow after."

Rafael nodded and, with one fleeting glance at Jasper, immediately started running back. Jasper was tensed, not sure what Maria, who was now staring after Rafael, was going to do now.

She looked back at Jasper and growled out, "Don't think you're going to get away easily. I may be letting you go now, but I will be back Jasper. One day, I will find you again, and I _will _get revenge. You won't be able to hide from me forever, and that's exactly how long we'll have." Maria turned to the newborns, who were now getting antsy. "Get ready, we're leaving in five minutes."

They threw glances at Jasper and his group, and Maria shook her head, growling at them. "If any of you get killed here, then we're losing Mexico City. Let them go."

Jasper turned to look at Peter and Charlotte. "Go," he whispered, "We'll be right behind you." Peter nodded, and they slowly made their way out of the clearing, Jasper ushered Alice after them, and took up the rear, watching the newborns warily.

It happened in a flash then. Maria was suddenly in front of him, snarling. She ducked to the side and bit into his skin on the shoulder blade. Alice whirled around to stare in shock when Jasper hissed in surprise. Her eyes widened and she was quickly furious at Maria. She snarled and took a step forward like she was about to attack.

Jasper wrenched his arm back from Maria's grip and growled, sinking into a crouch. Maria laughed and stepped back. "Just making sure you know just who you belong to, Jasper. _You're mine._"

Jasper glared fiercely and urged Alice to keep walking, promising to follow right behind. As he continued walking away, Jasper hissed back, _"I'm nobody's."_

When they were well away from the camp Maria had set up, Jasper finally turned around and couldn't help the shaky laugh of relief that escaped his lips when Alice threw herself against him, wrapping her arms around his neck. "I was so _scared. _If that one vampire hadn't come..."

Jasper just laughed again and kissed the top of her head. "We're safe now, that's the important thing. I promised to get you to the Cullens', didn't I?"

Alice smiled in relief. "Yeah," she breathed, "You did, and you came through."

Jasper sent her another surge of love, and Alice surprised him then by kissing him on the lips in relief, happily pressing herself tighter against him.

Jasper suddenly winced, and Alice pulled back immediately. "Are you alright?" she asked, instantly concerned.

He nodded and rubbed at his shoulder absently. "Yes, don't worry, it's just where Maria bit me."

Alice pulled his arm gently outward and observed the bite mark. Standing on tip toe, she lightly brushed her lips against the soon to be scar. Although the venom was still there, it felt to Jasper that the stinging stopped right then as her lips barely touched his skin.

Jasper buried his head in her cropped hair and smiled. Alice pulled back then and looked up at him. "You're wrong, you know." she told him.

"What?" he asked in confusion.

"I said that you're wrong. You do belong to someone. You belong _to me._" Jasper felt a wave of possessiveness roll off of her, and couldn't help but smile.

"You're right," he agreed. "But just so you know, _you _belong to _me_."

Alice nipped at his skin, her own mark on him, and one he would bear with pride and honor. "I wouldn't have it any other way."

"Come on!" they suddenly heard Charlotte cry, followed by a chuckle from Peter, both of them a little farther up.

Jasper stood up from where they had fallen to the forest floor, pulling Alice up with him. He let go of all of her once she stood up, save for her hand. Alice got a mischievous glint in her eye and smiled slyly before, "Race you!"

She took off to where the sound of Charlotte's voice was, and Jasper followed close behind, trying to catch up. Alice laughed, completely happy to finally be away from Maria and the newborns.

Jasper caught up to her as soon as Charlotte came into view. He wrapped his arms around her, and they both fell to the floor, laughing.

Charlotte smiled and Peter came up behind her, wrapping his arm around her shoulder and watching Alice and Jasper who were lying on the ground and staring at each other, their laughter slowly coming to a stop as they gazed into each other's eyes lovingly. "Come on," Peter murmured in Charlotte's ear. "We'll meet up with them in a few minutes." It was obviously a very intimate moment.

Charlotte nodded and they left Alice and Jasper quietly, turning their eyes away from the private scene.

"I love you." Jasper whispered so quietly that there was no possible way anybody besides Alice could ever hear.

"I love you, too." she noticed the black of his eyes right at that then. Alice didn't want to ruin so wonderful a moment, but she knew it had to be done. "You have to hunt." she told him quietly.

Jasper sighed but nodded and lifted Alice to her feet before following. "Anything good in this forest? Or maybe we should go as far away as we can right now."

Alice hesitated. "Are you sure you can go very long without hunting?"

"I've made it this far, haven't I? Come on, we'll go find Peter and Charlotte first." Jasper wrapped an arm around her and they slowly walked through the forest.

"We survived, Jasper. All of us, and not a scratch. Well, almost." Alice said, looking at his shoulder blade sadly.

"Yeah. We made it."

****

Alice looked up from the second bear that she had had. Jasper was finishing one a few paces away, his body hunched over the grizzly on the floor. They had gone a little ways away, and would be meeting back with their two friends in a little.

Alice dropped the corpse to the ground and continued to watch Jasper. When Jasper finished his own bear, he looked over at Alice, who gasped before grinning in delight. "Jasper, your eyes are completely golden now!" she cried happily.

"What?"

"They're golden all the way, there's no more red in them, at all!"

Jasper stared at Alice before he slowly started to smile with her. It had taken one year, but this was proof, proof that he didn't _have _to be a monster. "All thanks to you, Alice."

****

Alice and Jasper stood on the side of the road with Peter and Charlotte, their car nearby, and coated in a layer of dust. "When are you getting married?" Charlotte asked them.

"We don't know, yet. Is there any way we can keep in contact with you, to let you know."

"We've been staying in an abandoned building nearby, but I don't know how long we'll be there." Peter answered for them.

"If I keep tabs on you guys, I will probably be able to figure it out."

"We're going to travel up north somewhere, probably Montreal. We're going to be taking our time though."

"Canada?" Jasper asked in surprise.

Peter nodded. "Somewhere far away from here."

"We'll find you." Alice promised, and Jasper nodded in agreement.

"I suppose this is where we part ways, then." Charlotte said.

"I guess so." Alice agreed. The two girls hugged, as did Peter and Alice, and Jasper and Charlotte. Peter and Jasper shook hands before Alice and Jasper headed for their car, while the other two started running, quickly trying to get out of any of the southern states.

"Can we get a hotel?" Alice asked when they got into the car.

Jasper chuckled as he slid into the passenger seat. "If you'd like."

Alice crinkled her nose. "I need a shower," she said and added as an afterthought, "And a new outfit."

Jasper laughed and Alice turned the car around to head back to the city that they had practically flown through in their haste. It was barely evening now, and they would leave the hotel before morning the next day to get out of there as soon as possible. "So where do you want to go next?"

Alice stared out the window at the setting sun. "I don't know. Right now, I don't think I want to plan ahead more than tonight."

"We'll figure it out as we go along, then?" Jasper asked.

"Well figure it out as we go along." Alice confirmed.

_Erm...so, yeah. Not to sure how I liked this but hey, what can I do? And just for the record, you guys are like, amazing. I'm almost at 200 reviews (like 22, I think)! I'm now averaging almost twenty review per chapter! You people are amazing!_

_I'm definitely not getting the next chapter out as quickly as I did these (three in three days, that's a big WOW for me), but it should be out in less than a week, at least I hope so._

_Okay, I didn't proofread this as well as I should I have, but I'm tired, and truthfully, I want to play with some of my Christmas presents (or at least read the book I got)._

_Disclaimer: I own nothing._

_~Tally_


	13. Planning The Wedding

Alice touched Jaspers arm lightly. Jasper glanced over at her and smiled, before he glanced out the large window in the front of the lobby and then back at Alice. They were checking out of the hotel early that morning, ready to head back home. Alice sighed in contentment, happy to be able to be going home.

_Esme collapsed on the couch, dry sobbing. Her face was buried in her hands as Carlisle rubbed soothing circles in her back. "Esme, it's okay, it'll all work out," he comforted softly._

_"But I killed her, Carlisle! All that woman was doing was shopping, she had a little daughter with her, too, and I killed her, all because of a single drop of blood!"_

_"Esme, we'll fix this, don't worry."_

_Emmett, Rosalie, and Edward came in, all moving toward their mother. "Don't worry mom!" Emmett told her in his usual boisterous manner, "The human was going to die eventually anyway."_

_"But I killed her!" Esme repeated._

_"Don't worry, Esme, it's only natural, it's fine," Rosalie said, sitting down next to her surrogate mother and wrapping an arm carefully around her._

_"I wish their was someway to make you fell better, Esme," Edward sighed._

The vision shifted.

_"I'm sorry you four, we've hardly been here a month an a half and we already have to move."_

_"It's fine, Esme, dear, don't worry," Carlisle comforted._

_Edward was racing down the road, passing the city limits and quickly leaving the state. A 'Welcome to Ohio' sign flew by, but none of them noticed. "We were going to have to leave Elkins eventually, it just happened sooner rather than later."_

_They were all crammed into the car, a few of their belongings with them, but for the most part, they had left it all back in their old house._

_"Where to now?" Carlisle asked his family finally._

_Silence was his answer._

Jasper glanced at Alice, who had looked at him in distress. "What?" he asked as they moved forward to check out of the hotel.

"Esme...she killed a human. In Elkins. We can't go back now. Not for a while, at least," Alice said mournfully.

"Why not?" he demanded quietly.

"We disappear, the Cullens move in, they leave town, and then we suddenly reappear after someone's been killed? It's too coincidental."

"But it's what happened."

"And the authorities will believe us? We don't have any proof or an alibi. We practically vanished off the face of the Earth. If we just stay away from West Virginia for a little, we'll be fine."

"Alright," Jasper relented. They quickly checked out, and were in the Cadillac just as the sun started rising. "So where to?" he asked as they sat in the car.

Alice hesitated, "I don't know," she said finally. "I guess it's back to hotels until we can figure it out."

Jasper sighed and ran his fingers through his hair — an act he only did when he was overwhelmed or the emotions of someone became too much. Alice took his hand in her own and held it there, looking into his eyes meaningfully. "I know, I know. It's just, I was...well I was looking forward to being able to go _home_, finally."

"Jasper," Alice started, "do you not _want _to be with the Cullens? You keep referring to Elkins as our home, and I suppose, in a way, it is, but the Cullens will be our home soon. Unless...you don't want to find them."

"It's just," Jasper hesitated and turned to stare out the window. "I'm worried that...that you'll come to love them more than me, and if something were to happen, and I wanted to leave, then you wouldn't want to come with me. I don't want to — I can't live without you."

Alice reached out a hand and gently brushed his cheek. "That could never happen," she whispered,"and even _if _it did, I would follow you to the end of the earth."

Jasper laughed, "That's supposed to be my line," he told her.

"It's true," Alice shrugged, "I would."

"As would I."

"So where to?" he repeated.

Alice suddenly smiled mysteriously, "I don't know, but wherever we go, I need to get my wedding dress."

Jasper smiled as he saw the way her eyes seemed to light up. They danced happily as she stared thoughtfully out the window, her mind focused on her wedding dress. The dress she would wear when they were united _forever._

Jasper started the car, and then they were driving, quickly leaving the city behind, flying through Arizona. At the high speeds they were going, the couple was out of Arizona in little more than two hours.

"What's sleeping like?" Alice asked Jasper suddenly after a long period of silence.

"Hm?"

"I was just wondering, what is sleep like? I know you haven't been human for a while, but, can you remember it at all?"

Jasper's expression was thoughtful. "Well," he said slowly, "no one can really _remember _sleep. It was like, you would lay down, hopefully in a bed but you could sleep anywhere, and you would close your eyes and you wouldn't be aware of the rest of the world. It made time pass a lot quicker, because as soon as you fell asleep, it felt like you were waking up the next instant.. It sure made Christmas come a lot quicker though," he hesitated before he continued talking, "Sometimes you would dream. I don't remember mine, but I know sometimes they would be the most random things, sometimes they seemed to be hinting toward the future."

"Do you ever miss sleeping?"

Jasper shrugged. "I suppose sometimes, in the beginning, yes, but now I enjoy spending all the time I can with you. Why, do you wish you could sleep? Do you miss all of those human needs?"

Alice shrugged herself. "Well you can't really miss something that you never had. I don't know what it was like to eat, or sleep, so I don't know if I miss it."

"I guess that that makes sense." Jasper said, nodding.

They both turned to look at each other and smiled at the same time.

Alice got another vision, and Jasper glanced at the road fleetingly before turning to look at her again. She mouthed something, 'March 18th,' and Jasper furrowed his brow. March eighteenth, what was that? Why was it important?

The vision ended and Alice was immediately buoyant. "March eighteenth." she stated in a satisfied sort of way, closing her eyes and smiling.

"What?"

Alice opened her eyes and looked at Jasper, her smile widening into a full blown grin, "That's the day we're getting married." she whispered.

****

"Agh!" Alice growled in frustration, throwing another fat magazine on the ground. It lay face down next to the hotel bed, next to a whole other pile of discarded magazines. Alice sighed and rolled over onto her back before sitting up. Jasper was laughing quietly from his spot on the other side of the room. "None of them have _anything _I like!"

They were somewhere in northern Montana currently, but the couple hadn't really been paying attention to where exactly.

"I'm sure you'll find something," Jasper assured her when her finally stopped chuckling.

Alice pouted and got off the bed, wandering over to the sliding glass door that led to a balcony overlooking the pool across from the hotel. The sliver of a moon cast a glimmering light into their dark room. It would be strange to have their light on at that time of night, and their eyes were keener than a humans, so they had shut it off since it wasn't needed anyway.

"I've been to stores, I've looked through hundreds of wedding magazines, there is not one dress that is _me. _Jazz, it has to be perfect!"

"Alice, you'll find something in time, don't worry. We're still a month and a half away."

Alice turned away from the window to look back at Jasper. "Yeah," she finally relented. "You're right."

Jasper nodded. "Take your mind off of the wedding, and relax for a moment," she gave him a look and crossed her arms, "Or just think about something else for a minute. What kind of flowers do you want? Guests?" he amended.

"Bluebells. If we can." Alice sighed and rubbed her eyes. "Peter and Charlotte. I don't think that there is anybody else to invite. It will definitely be small."

Jasper pulled Alice toward him and crushed her to his side. "It will be intimate. The size of the wedding won't matter, because at the end of the day, I'll be yours and you'll be mine."

She nodded in agreement. "It will be nice, you're right. I don't need an extravagant wedding to be happy. I'm happy with you."

Jasper smiled and kissed the top of her head. "There you go. Positive thinking, darling." Alice smiled herself, secretly enjoying the term of endearment, of course, he already knew, so it wasn't much of a secret. "So do you still need to plan the wedding right now?"

Alice sighed but nodded. "Definitely. Even _if _it's going to be small, it need to be perfect, no way am I procrastinating on this."

"Alright," he kissed her cheek and let Alice go so she could get back to work.

Barely five minutes passed when Alice groaned and slipped off the bed again. She pinched the bridge of her nose, a habit she had picked up from seeing Edward do so so often, and told Jasper, "I _cannot _do this right now. I need to go shopping."

Jasper threw his head back and laughed while Alice flitted to his side and delicately slapped his arm. "Not so loud," she hissed, "the humans are sleeping."

Jasper quieted down, but continued snickering. "When in doubt, go shopping," he teased her lightly.

Alice stuck her tongue out at her fiancé, which sent Jasper into a whole other round of laughter. Alice frowned and grabbed his hand and her purse, pulling him out the door forcefully. "Just for that you get to be my bag carrier," she muttered.

Despite the time of night, or morning, really, Alice somehow managed to find a few stores that were open. She happily dragged Jasper in to one, moving quickly through the store and looking at all the beautiful clothing that they sold.

With a large pile in hand, she hurried to the dressing room to try on everything that she liked. Not only did Alice have a large pile, but Jasper behind her had another stack that she had picked out.

"You know," Alice called to Jasper as she slipped on a dress in the dressing room, "you need some new clothes, too. You really need to let me shop for you more. That plaid shirt of yours is terribly out of fashion.

Jasper pretended to be offended, even going as far as gasping in mock-outrage, "Plaid shirts are never out of style!"

Alice came out of the changing room and twirled in the dress, showing it off for Jasper, though she knew that after a while all the dresses would tend to look the same to him. "Try telling _that _to Christian Dior."

"Who?"

Alice shook her head. "My poor, poor, deprived fiancé. You will definitely have to be taught the ins and outs of fashion," she said in all seriousness, and Jasper rolled his eyes.

"Joy," he deadpanned, but really, if fashion and shopping was all it took to get Alice to calm down about the wedding, then, well, he might just have to stick it out.

"Now about that plaid shirt..." Alice said mischievously.

"Alice!"

Her only response was to laugh and dance away from his reach as he swatted at her lightly.

In the end, Alice won, and got to buy Jasper what he considered an entirely new wardrobe, though Alice insisted it was only for the new season. By the time they were done shopping, the sun was coming up and Alice pulled Jasper into a little café. She brought him to the booth in the corner and waved the waitress away.

"What are--?"

Alice nodded her head toward where the sun was coming up. It stopped right at their table, a foot away from them. "The clouds will be out in about thirty minutes. We just have to wait here until then."

Jasper nodded, and Alice was thankful that they had hunted the night before, and that no one besides the employees were there.

The waitress started to make her way over to them, and Jasper snorted quietly when he saw her shoes—or lack thereof. "Roller skates?" he asked Alice quietly.

"Hey!" Alice defended. "Roller skating waitresses are going to get really popular in the next decade," she looked thoughtful then, "And poodle skirts," Alice added as an afterthought.

Jasper just shook his head and looked over at the roller skating waitress. "Hi, my name is Jenny and I'll be your server. What can I get you two?" She asked brightly, her ponytail bobbing up and down.

"Just water, please," Alice said quietly, and the girl nodded, looking at Jasper now.

When she caught sight of him, Jasper felt the lust roll off of her in waves. His eyes darkened minimally, and Alice grabbed his hand in hers under the table. "Just...a...water, too, please," he said, still attempting to be at least a little polite.

Alice smiled reassuringly at him. Her southern gentleman. Jasper smiled shakily back at her and ceased breathing when another human came in, casting the waitresses scent straight at them. Alice had to admit, the girl smelled better than most humans. Like cinnamon and sugar, only it smelled appetizing to them.

"You'll be okay," she whispered to him. Jasper nodded and looked out the window. Jenny came back then, carrying their waters. She set them down on their table and smiled again. "What do you want to eat?"

"We're good for now," Alice told her, and Jasper nodded in agreement.

The girl just stared at them for a moment before blinking rapidly and nodding. "Alright."

Jasper gave Alice a look as soon as the waitress was gone that said, 'When can we get out of here?'

"Fifteen more minutes, Jasper," Alice murmured quietly to him so no human would hear. "Can you make it?"

Jasper nodded hesitantly and Alice picked up her water glass, bringing it to her lips. She pretended to take a sip when the other customer tried to glance sneakily at them.

The fifteen minutes seemed to pass achingly slow, but as soon as they were up, Alice stood up and picked up a few of her smaller shopping bags before smiling innocently and dazzlingly at Jasper. "Would you mind getting the rest?"

Jasper rolled his eyes playfully but picked the bags up dutifully. "Back to the hotel?" he asked hopefully once they were outside.

Alice giggled but nodded. "Yes, we're going back to the hotel now. No more shopping today, don't worry, I promise."

Jasper pretended to be relieved over-dramatically. "No more shopping? It's a miracle!" now Alice rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"Come on," Alice sighed, tugging on Jasper's arm. They walked in silence as they headed back to the hotel that they were staying in.

"So how much longer do you think we'll be staying here?" Jasper asked as they neared the hotel.

Alice shrugged, "Probably another few days. A storm is coming, I was figuring that we would leave sometime around then."

Jasper looked up at the sky where the sun was being covered up by a multitude of clouds. "It's still so strange to be out during the day. It doesn't seem right for someone like us."

"You'll get used to it, don't worry." Alice smiled brightly at Jasper as they entered the hotel.

The man at the front desk looked up briefly, but glanced down at his paperwork, blushing. Alice smiled at the man as they passed him, and he nodded back stoically, trying to look away as soon as possible.

When they got to their room, Alice set down her small bag and bounced over to Jasper, taking all of the bags in his hands and setting them on her bed. She grinned at Jasper and went to work sorting through the clothes. "I haven't been able to really shop like this for awhile. Moving around and all that. Thank you," she said sincerely.

"Your welcome," he answered, sitting down on the edge of the bed and watching her work, "So what are you planning on doing with your other clothes?"

Alice shrugged, "I don't know. Probably give them to someone, I just have to figure out who." Jasper nodded and absently picked up one of her wedding magazines, flipping through it.

"Why don't you design your dress?" he said suddenly, looking over at Alice.

"What?" Alice stopped what she was doing and turned her body to face Jasper.

"Well you said that you couldn't find a dress, and I know it might be short-term, but why don't you design it? It will be one of a kind, just like you."

Alice's eyes glazed over as she searched the future before a smile broke out across her face and she practically pounced on him, pulling Jasper into a hug. "Jasper you're brilliant!" she cried.

Jasper just smiled and kissed the top of her head. "Glad to be of assistance, ma'am."

"This will be the best wedding dress you'll ever see," she declared.

_Happy New Year! Thank you everybody that has reviewed, added this story to their favorites and/or alerts._

_Forgive me for taking a little while to post, but hey, it's finally out now. In case you couldn't tell from the above chapter, it's been decided, Alice and Jasper will be married before they meet the Cullens. I don't think it was ever said by Stephenie when they were married, but if anybody could tell me if she has, and when, then it would be greatly appreciated._

_Disclaimer: I wished for it on New Year's Eve, but sadly I still don't own Twilight (or Jasper, dang it!)_


	14. Cowboy hats and Gettysburg

Alice and Jasper walked down the empty sidewalk, their hands interlocked and Alice swung them back and forth, smiling happily at Jasper. "I'm glad that we're coming back," she said quietly, and Jasper nodded his agreement, smiling down at her.

"Does the same person own it?" Jasper asked.

"Yes," Alice started, "but I don't know about everybody else there."

"Ah."

"We're here," Alice declared then, positively beaming now. Jasper pulled open the door for her, and the little bells tinkled. "Thank you."

Jasper nodded, "You're welcome, ma'am," he gave her a small smile and Alice led him over to a booth next to a large window so they could look out at the city.

"That wasn't here," she said quietly, pointing to a building across the street, "it used to be a little park," she continued, "but all in all, Philadelphia is almost the same as it was a year ago."

They both looked up when a waitress approached them then. "What can I get you to start off with?"

"I'll get this table Katie, don't worry," someone said. The waitress looked over to see the cook standing there with a pad of paper and a pencil in his hand, "You go take care of the other customers. Someone else is in the kitchen right now."

The girl nodded hesitantly, "Alright." She left, and Bill turned back to Alice and Jasper, smiling warmly at Alice.

"Coffee—black, right?"

Alice laughed, "Yeah, you right, I'm surprised you remembered, Bill."

"You're not someone easily forgotten. Not to mention that you never seemed to eat anything," he explained, and Alice laughed again. The cook nodded toward Jasper, "This is him, isn't it?"

Alice nodded, looking at Jasper now. "Yes, it is."

"So what can I get for you?"

"Uh," Jasper glanced at Alice, "I guess I'll have the same as her."

"Two black coffees, coming up," Bill said, nodding at Alice again before turning and going back into the kitchen.

"You're close with some of these humans," Jasper noted, "You care for them."

Alice nodded and took Jasper's hand in her own, "Yeah. I was waiting here for three weeks. I would sit here for the entire day, so they would sometimes try to talk with me. I finally started really answering, and we got kind of close. Betty probably got her money's worth from me. At first I would order food, but then they noticed that I never ate it, so Bill stopped giving it to me. He always gave me coffee."

"He likes you," Jasper declared.

Alice scoffed. "No he doesn't," she told Jasper.

"Yes he does," Jasper said, nodding.

"Doesn't."

"Does to."

"Does not."

"Does to."

"Does no—,"

Jasper laughed and cut her off, "Alice, I think I would know a little better than you. Empathetic, remember?"

Alice laughed along with him at the absurdity of their bickering. Bill brought their coffees out and looked at Alice with slight resignation that Jasper wouldn't have recognized if he hadn't been an empath.

"What now?" Alice pretended to huff in annoyance, smiling at Jasper when the cook left.

"He still likes you, but he's decided he doesn't have a chance."

Alice raised an eyebrow. "And how do you know that?" she asked, gripping her coffee cup that was steaming, unaware that that wasn't very human as she leaned closer toward Jasper.

He in return just shrugged. "It's the same way that I used to look at you," he told her, staring into his own cup. Alice frowned, but Jasper ignored this, making a face at the coffee. "How do humans _like _this? It looks disgusting." he said, lightening the mood even without his strange gift.

Alice giggled and nodded in agreement. "It looks horrible, doesn't it? I poured it into a potted plant once," she said, lowering her voice and motioning toward where the plant used to be, "it was dead when I came the next day."

Jasper wrinkled his nose in disgust, staring at the two full coffees in front of them.

"How about we get them to go, and dump them as soon as we're out the door?" Alice suggested cheerfully.

Jasper just nodded, still staring at the hot drinks, "I swear, it's like it's _watching _me. Are you sure this coffee is edible, even for a human?"

Alice laughed as she signaled for the bill. "Famous for coffee, they're not."

She got the bill and reached for her purse, but Jasper slid a five dollar bill on the table first, smiling at Alice. "Don't worry, I've got it. A lady should never have to pay."

Alice smiled back at him. "Thank you," she said before turning to the girl, "Can we get those put into to-go cups?" The girl nodded and picked up the two full things of coffee.

"Remind me again why we're taking that disgusting coffee?"

"We need to look human, and those are completely full."

"I think we would look more human if we didn't drink _that,_" he muttered, but the girl brought their coffee back, so he dutifully took his own and stood up while Alice slid out of the booth, picking up her bag.

Jasper pushed open the front door, and the cool wind blew into the diner. Alice glanced back at everyone inside there before walking past Jasper and out into the now raging storm. Jasper followed after her with one stony glance back at all the humans enjoying their time. Alice was...dancing in the rain, Jasper realized with a smile.

That seemed like Alice. He took to long strides to where she was in the empty street after throwing his drink out and swept her up in his arms, pulling her through another complex dance of hers. The storm raged on, probably as hard as on the day they had met.

By the time they had finished their dance, they were both soaked through, hair plastered to their faces. Alice laughed and brushed a lock of Jasper's wet hair out of his eyes as she stood on tiptoe to wrap her arms around his neck.

The rain lessened, but the pair barely noticed this as they stared into each others eyes, breathing in sync. Jasper leaned closer to her and ever so gently pressed his lips against hers. It wasn't a kiss—not really—but her eyes slipped shut as he held her there in his arms in contentment.

Finally, it stopped raining, and they both looked up at the sky before Alice started tugging at Jasper's hand, pulling him after her. The streets were still barren, and the rain washed away the scent of any humans, giving Jasper a break from the relentless hardship.

"Ready to go back to the hotel yet?" Alice asked him quietly.

Jasper hesitated before he shook her head firmly. "No," he decided, "Let's just stay out here for just a while longer."

Alice nodded and slipped her hand into his silently as they continued to walk down the street.

****

Yet another human pushed past Alice, and she tightened her grip on Jasper's arm. "I thought this was supposed to be the city of brotherly love," she huffed under her breath.

Jasper laughed, trying not to think about all of the humans that were surrounding them, unaware that they could very well die in one minute. "I'm sure that that's just a name, darling."

"Yes, but there has to be some foundation to it, right?" Alice pointed out while Jasper just shrugged. Alice sighed and dropped it, instead changing the topic. "So what do you want to do on our last day here in Pennsylvania?"

"Well," Jasper said slyly, smiling down at her, "maybe we could go by Gettysburg, while we're here?"

Alice laughed and grinned at him. "My southern boy," she joked. Jasper smiled adoringly at her, and Alice, her eyes dancing with mirth, finally said, "Only if you where a cowboy hat. Oh! And if you say 'y'all' a lot."

"I bet I could say y'all more than you," Jasper challenged.

Alice smirked and nodded in agreement. "Alright y'all, I accept your challenge. For the rest of the day. Alice: 1, Jasper: 0."

"Darling, y'all never should have challenged a _Texan _to something like this," Jasper said, smirking at Alice in confidence as his accent became more pronounced, "Y'all are going to back down before I even break a sweat."

"Wait," Alice said suddenly, "isn't 'y'all' short for 'you all?' Wouldn't it be incorrect grammar if you're only talking to one person?" she asked in confusion.

"Sweetheart, we _never _said anything about it having to be in proper english. Y'all. Alice: 1, Jasper: 3."

Alice stuck her tongue out at Jasper childishly, and Jasper laughed. "Come on, the car's this way, and y'all said something about wanting to go to Gettysburg, right?"

Jasper shook his head at the fact that Alice was talking with no accent, but clearly talking like a Texan with every time she said y'all.

****

All of their joking and teasing was dropped the moment that they arrived in Gettysburg. Jasper walked through the empty field with hard eyes as he looked around silently. Alice stayed a few paces behind him, knowing that at that moment, Jasper needed to do this alone.

He turned and stared past Alice, and Alice whirled around to see what he was looking at. With a quiet step, Jasper grasped Alice's hand in his own tightly, as if he was reassuring himself that he wasn't alone anymore. "One of my men," he started softly, staring into space, "Bobby, I think we called him, he died right here. We were close. Sometimes I wonder if I could have saved him if I had...stayed human. Perhaps he would have been able to go home to his wife. I remember...he always talked about her, and he would say to me, 'One day, you're going to find your girl Jasper, and you'll be tellin' me every little thing about her, just like I am.' I guess he was half-right."

"I'm sorry," Alice murmured.

"Don't be. You didn't do anything wrong. If anybody, I would blame Maria for making me become _this." _he turned and looked at Alice finally, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. "On the other hand, I never would have met you."

The somber moment passed, and Alice twirled in his arms to face Jasper, standing to her full height to gently press her lips against his cheek. Jasper still had to lean down, but he didn't mind. With her lips still placed against his cheek, Alice murmured, "I never thought I would, but the next time I see Maria, I might just have to thank her."

Jasper laughed and caught her eye, smiling slightly as he led her away from the battle ground where so many had died. They were just happy to be able to be with one another, unaware of the rest of the surroundings.

As they got back to the car, Alice peered into the back seat where their things were. "Huh," Alice said as she stared at something in particular.

"What?" Jasper asked.

Alice pulled something out of the back and set it down atop Jasper's head, giggling. Jasper shook his head and laughed when he realized what it was.

With a cowboy hat and boots, Jasper was the perfect example for a cowboy.

"I just thought y'all should know," Alice said as she got into the drivers' seat and started the car, "That I'm winning."

"Excuse me?" Jasper asked incredulously, raising an eyebrow, "Y'all must be crazy, because I am two ahead of y'all."

Alice only scoffed, shaking her head. "Twice in the beginning, one in the car, three at the hotel_, five _on the way here, and one now."

"Two in the beginning, one in the car, three at the hotel, four on the way, and two now."

Alice gasped. "We're tied," she realized.

Jasper hesitated before smirking. "I bet I can use the word buffalo in a sentence more than you—_properly, _too."

"I once took my buffalo down to Buffalo to get buffalo hide for my buffalo's buffalo-y barn. Hah, beat that. Five," Alice declared, obviously taking his challenge.

"Four," Jasper corrected, "'Buffalo-y' isn't a word."

Alice stuck her tongue out at him. "Still, I bet you can't beat that."

"Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo."

Alice blinked. "There is no way that that is proper english, I win by default!" she cried happily.

"Buffalo, New York, Buffalo as in the animal, and buffalo, as in to bully or intimidate. That's eight, I believe, all proper. I win."

Alice gasped in outrage. "That is so unfair. How did you _beat _me? I am the buffalo-talking champion."

Jasper broke out into loud laughter at Alice's serious expression while her fists tightened on the steering wheel. Her foot pressed down on the gas pedal a little harder than necessary, and Jasper started laughing again even after he had finally calmed down somewhat.

"Looks like I took your title." Jasper finally managed to tell her, smiling confidently. "That's two things I've beat you in."

"We tied!" Alice suddenly burst, throwing him a glance out of the corner of her eye. "And don't you dare try to correct me, Jasper Whitlock, or so help me..."

Jasper bowed his head and pretended to feel remorse before looking at her and saying in a child-like voice, "I'm sorry, Miss Alice, please don't be mad at me." He even sniffed for added effect.

"It's okay," Alice joked, "I forgive you, Mr. Whitlock."

Jasper smiled at Alice, their light teasing now forgotten. They shared a glance that was as intimate as if they had said 'I love you.' With Jasper's extra sense, he knew exactly how Alice felt for him, and with Alice's gift, she knew before he ever had to say anything.

Instead they drove in silence, happy to be together.

_Okay, definitely not a favorite chapter for me. Opinions? I was trying to portray Alice's and Jasper's love on a more light level. I mean we all know they've got the whole 'staring into each others' eyes passionately' down, but I just think that they would be able to joke and tease each other, too._

_I know, I know, took me a couple weeks to update, yes, I'm really sorry. I have a foreign exchange student staying with me from Australia (which is awesome), but it doesn't give me much time on my computer, and I have been having trouble with writers' block._

_Also, and oh, my gosh, I feel really stupid about this, but I realized that Alice references her and Jasper's anniversary. Obviously it takes place some times in March, perhaps April, if I'm pushing it, but that means that, duh, their wedding can't be in July. As soon as I realized this, it wouldn't leave me alone, so I had to go back and change it. They will now be getting married in March, and it is currently the middle of February in my story, give or take a little._

_Disclaimer: I don't own._

_Feedback is appreciated, Tally._


	15. Cameras

"Oh God, Peter, what if she decides that she doesn't want to marry me anymore? Or what if she leaves me at the alter?" Jasper fretted nervously to his friend.

They were in Peter's hotel room (that Alice had insisted they get), while the two girls worked on any last minute details for the wedding. Jasper might as well have been spazzing, the way he was panicking to Peter.

"Then only three of us would know—the Priest, Charlotte, and I," Peter said in exasperation, rubbing his eyes and sighing at Jasper's sharp intake of breath that practically screamed, 'Do you think she would do that?' Peter sighed again and opened his eyes. "Do you really have so little faith in Alice?"

Jasper frowned. "No. You're right. I'm sorry Peter, Alice would never do that, I'm just freaking out."

"I was freaked out just like you when Charlotte and I were married, remember?" Peter laughed at the memory while Jasper smiled at his friend. "Apparently she had wanted to be married a long time ago when she was human. After we left Maria, all Charlotte could look at _every _time we went into towns was the engagement rings. Obviously I couldn't afford it, but I proposed to her, all the same. After much prodding from her, might I add. But it's okay, I'd do anything to please her."

Jasper nodded, knowing he felt the same way about Alice. He held up the tuxedo she had bought for him before looking back at what his current clothing was before making a face.

Peter just laughed.

****

_"Oh my God, _what if he runs off because he doesn't want to be a vegetarian?" Alice freaked out to Charlotte.

"You're the psychic, Alice, you would know as soon as he decided. But trust me Alice, I've known Jasper for awhile, and he has never been happier than when he is with you," her voice turned morose, "the way he walked, the way he always looked upon Peter and I bittersweetly. I don't think he thought he would ever find somebody as wonderful as you. My heart always ached for him, but now he was you. He positively lights up when he sees you." She smiled at Alice, and Alice gave her a small one in return.

"You're right, I should have more faith in him," Alice admitted, watching the humans as they worked on her dress off to the side. She was getting some finishing touches since the wedding would be in a week and a half.

"I think he'll be speechless," Charlotte trilled, giggling with Alice.

Alice nodded, still smiling, as she inspected her dress carefully. Everything had to be perfect. "It feels like it's missing something," Alice said thoughtfully, running the fabric through her fingers.

She closed her eyes as a vision overtook her before opening them again after a moment of silence. She beamed at Charlotte, her face lit up like a child in a candy shop.

"I know what it needs," was all she told them.

****

The group of four was sitting in Alice and Jasper's room comfortably a few days later. Alice and Jasper were holding hands on the couch they were sharing, while Peter and Charlotte sat on the edge of the bed.

"You understand why you can't hunt in this area, don't you?" Alice asked nervously, checking for the seventh time.

"Alice honestly," Charlotte said, laughing, "we don't mind going a few towns over."

Alice nodded and couldn't help the sigh of relief that escaped her lips. "Thanks so much, Charlotte. Peter."

Peter nodded and smiled at Alice before standing up and holding a hand out for Charlotte. "C'mon Lottie, we'll go now and be back by evening."

Charlotte smiled and took Peter's hand, following him to the door. "We'll see you two in a while," she called over her shoulder, waving before she closed the door softly after herself.

"We need to hunt soon, too," Alice reminded Jasper.

"Let's just...stay here for a little longer," Jasper suggested, pulling Alice onto his lap and nuzzling the back of her neck.

Alice giggled, turning slightly so they were looking into each other's eyes.

"One week," she murmured, pressing her forehead against Jasper's now that they were almost the same height. She twisted her body around fully for a more comfortable position.

"Then we will officially be united forever," Jasper answered, kissing the tip of her nose. "Mr. and Mrs. Whitlock. Think you can put up with me for forever?"

"Hmm," Alice pretended to think about the question, but Jasper felt her amusement. "Yes," she said finally, "I think I just _might _be able to."

Jasper smiled and pulled her closer, placing a kiss on her cheek. "Good," he growled, trailing kisses down her neck now.

Alice lifted his chin and brought his lips to hers, wrapping her arms around him and knotting her fingers through his hair.

The kisses continued until Jasper's eyes flew open when he felt Alice start playing with his top shirt button. He pulled away and ran against the wall, watching her with wide eyes.

Alice looked down at the ground in hurt before a flare of anger shot up in her. Jasper stepped forward at once to apologize.

"Alice, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have...you have every right to be angry at me for starting that."

"Do you regret it?"

"What? I—no! Definitely not."

"Then don't be sorry!" Alice cried in exasperation, stalking toward him. "I'm angry that we _stopped. _What is with you and 'protecting my virtue?'" she placed her hands on her hips, waiting for her answer.

Jasper just stared at her, trying to explain the reason. She was practically glaring at him now, and Jasper was suddenly mad. "Dammit Alice, it's because I can't do that to you! Whether or not you want to, I won't _do _that until we're married. Not to someone I love. Not to you."

Alice dropped her head to stare at her feet in embarrassment. "Sorry."

"No," Jasper sighed and ran his hand through his blonde hair, all anger forgotten, "It's all true, what I said, but I shouldn't have shouted. I haven't hunted for awhile, and the couple four doors down having been fighting for the past hour."

Alice laughed at his pained grimace and took Jasper's hand. "It's fine, Jazz, we'll go hunt now. It's killing two birds with one stone."

Jasper nodded but stopped her first. "Thank you, but Alice, wouldn't you like to change?"

Alice looked down at her clothes and squeaked, scrambling to the closet. "You're right! Thanks, Jazz." She ran into the bathroom with more 'disposable' clothes and came out in less than thirty seconds. She set her clothes and the bed and turned to Jasper, fully ready to go now. "Ready?"

She skipped to the door and they quickly left, Jasper with his arm wrapped around her. "I thought you really liked that dress?" he asked in confusion on their way to the lobby, referring to the dress she was wearing to go hunting.

Alice giggled and twirled away from him. "Oh Jasper, this dress is _so _three months out of fashion."

"Right," Jasper said, nodding with a serious expression on his face. "Three months old, what was I thinking?"

Alice shook her head in mock-exasperation. "I have no clue. How do you survive without this knowledge?"

"Please enlighten me, oh great one, knower of anything fashion related," Jasper teased before he started laughing.

Alice lowered her voice as she spoke. "The humble vampire seeks my knowledge?"

Jasper tried to regain his composure and nodded, biting his lip to keep from laughing. "Yes, oh great fashion-conscious Alice."

Alice smirked mischievously as she ducked away from him. "Too bad!" she called back to him as she ran away from him at a human pace, jogging through the lobby. Jasper laughed and ran after her, pretending to struggle to catch up.

Everybody stared at them as they ran through the lobby, but the couple ignored the looks, rushing out the front door and down the street. With humans out, they were forced to run at a slow pace. To them, anyway. Constantly trying to get ahead of one another while they ran, Jasper finally ran up behind Alice and wrapped his arms around her waist, spinning her off the ground.

Alice squealed in delight and laughed, waiting for him to put her down. When he finally did, Jasper set her down facing the wrong way and took off.

Alice spun around to glare at him, taking off after him and increasing her pace to be a little too fast for a human. As they both got closer to the nearby forest, Jasper still in the lead, they went full out, running as hard as they both could.

"We'll go to there!" Jasper said, pointing to a tree in the distance. "And I'm going to beat you!" he taunted.

"We'll see about that!" Alice called back, trying to push her small legs faster.

Alice caught up with Jasper when they hit the forest and became immersed in the green.

"I'm going to beat you!" Alice teased back, sticking her tongue out at him before passing him.

Jasper in turn narrowed his eyes and increased his pace, reaching out for the tree that signaled the end of their little race.

"I win!"

"No!"

Jasper laughed in triumph, his exhilarating emotions bubbling over and affecting Alice as well until they were both smiling as they leaned against the tree.

"Time to hunt?" Alice finally suggested after a quiet moment.

Jasper nodded and stood up, holding a hand out to Alice. Alice took his hand and he pulled her up and off the ground. Jasper gave her a soft kiss on the forehead before he pulled back reluctantly and closed his eyes, taking in his surroundings.

Turning his head to catch the scent of an animal, his eye's flashed open and he smirked slightly at Alice. "Cougar," he told her, "and it's heading west."

"Go ahead. Just don't play with your food _too _much. I'll meet you back here."

"Alright." He shared a glance with her one more time before sprinting after his prey, letting his instincts take over.

While Jasper hunted his cougar, Alice settled for going after a herd of deer since she wasn't that thirsty. After catching only one deer, Alice went to find Jasper to watch him hunt, knowing that he wouldn't be done yet.

When she found him, she could tell that he had already caught a few animals from the bright golden hue his eyes were. Now, he was just playing with the animal in front of him.

Feinting left, he struck the final blow, and the mountain lion fell to the forest floor. Jasper brought his lips to the neck and bit down, sucking the blood from the dead body greedily. Finishing the mountain lion off, Jasper quickly buried the animal before he finally glanced over at Alice.

"What happened to your dress?"

****

"That stupid deer!" Alice screeched as they walked through the forest, now finished with their 'meal,' "I'm glad I killed it, it ruined my dress!"

"But Alice, I thought that that dress was out of fashion, so why does it matter?"

Alice turned to glare at Jasper. "It. Ruined. My. Dress."

Jasper chuckled nervously and held his hands up in surrender. "Right, sorry. Ruined your dress."

The forest was thinning, and Alice suddenly stopped, taking a good long look at her clothing. "Uh...Jasper, I _don't _think that I can just walk into the hotel with my dress looking like this." The top half had practically been torn to shreds, and Alice's undershirt could be seen.

"Oh. Right, well...here, you can use my coat, that I 'had to bring.' I guess these human pretenses really _do _help sometimes." Alice smiled and took the coat from his outstretched hand and put it on, laughing at the size.

The sleeves fell way past her fingertips, and the coat was only a few inches from her knees when she stood up straight.

"I think it's a little big," Alice told him, holding up her hands to show the sleeves that flopped over and hung a couple inches.

Jasper laughed. "I think you look adorable in it," he told her honestly.

"Alright," Alice said slowly, buttoning up the coat so her ripped dress wouldn't be seen. "We'll go to the hotel so I can change, and then I want to go out."

"Where?"

Alice shrugged. "I don't know. It's going to be cloudy all day and rain later, though, so I was thinking that we could just spend a day out on the town."

"Fine, we'll go out after you've gotten ready." Jasper finally said, smiling lazily at her.

Alice beamed at him. "Thanks Jazz," she told him before skipping lithely ahead.

Jasper watched her calmly, walking slowly. As she alternated between skipping and her light steps that seemed to belong to a dancer, she hummed quietly under her breath, all worries about her dress forgotten.

As they neared the hotel, Alice slowed her happy pace and instead turned to walk with Jasper. "I'll be ready in record time," Alice promised him as they entered the lobby.

An elderly couple that had been there when they had first raced out of the hotel was there, glaring at Alice and Jasper. Alice bit her lip to keep from laughing when she heard what they said next, "Those kids, they have no respect for their elders anymore. Honestly, running through a lobby is no way for them to behave."

Jasper looked away from them so that they couldn't see the smile on his face. Alice giggled and turned to share an amused glance with Jasper. "I'm probably as old as them," Alice whispered to him, "And I'm _pretty _sure that you would be just a _few _years older than them. Just a few."

"Don't make me laugh," Jasper muttered under his breath to her. "It would be disrespectful."

Alice sighed before giving in. "Oh, come on, let me go get ready."

Alice dragged him to the elevator and pulled him in, punching in the '9' and watching as it lit up.

"I just need to clean up and changed, I won't take but an hour."

Jasper put his hands in his pockets and shrugged. "Don't worry, we've got forever—quite literally."

Alice grinned and at the 'ding' that the elevator emitted, Alice pulled Jasper quickly out and to their room.

Jasper laughed under his breath quietly as Alice started flitting through their room as soon as they were in, trying to find a nice outfit. And her shoes.

"Jasper, do you know where my heels went? You know, the ones that made me look a couple inches taller?" she called as she looked around the room once more before sighing and entering the bathroom. "Never mind, I'll look after I take my shower, would you mind trying to find them for me?"

"Did you check under the bed"

Alice poked her head out from the bathroom. "No...will you?"

Jasper rolled his eyes but got down on his hands and knees to lift up the bed skirt. Looking under, he spotted the shoes and quickly fished them out. "Found them!" he called to Alice, who thanked him in return over the sound of the pounding water.

Jasper went looking through the closet, debating whether or not he should change his shirt when he saw it. It was hanging there in a bag so he couldn't see it, but he knew what it was. His fingers ached to reach out and touch and look at Alice's wedding dress.

As he stared at the bag though, Jasper knew that Alice didn't want him to look at it until the wedding. _The wedding._ It was in a week, it now dawned on him utterly and completely that in _a week, _he would be married to the most wonderful woman in existence.

Jasper sighed and ran a hand through his hair, turning away from the closet and instead opting to just wear the shirt he was wearing now. He fumbled with the buttons on his shirt as Alice came out of the bathroom a few minutes later, her hair still dripping slightly onto her new dress as she took the shoes from where he had set them.

As soon as she put them on, Alice walked over to the closet and gently touched her wedding dress. "Thank you," she said conversationally. Of course she would know that he had thought about looking at it. He almost had looked at the dress. "But you didn't," she answered the thought as if she could read his mind.

Jasper looked at her wryly, and Alice laughed quietly, smiling at him. "That would be Edward. I can just tell what you're thinking. So, are you ready to go yet?"

"Yes," he nodded and glanced over over at Alice. "Are you ready?"

"In a minute," she told him, digging through the closet before she pulled out a purse, slipping some money in that they had, however, considering that they kept all their money with them, 'some' was actually quite a large amount. "Okay, I'm ready." Jasper smiled and led the way out the door, grabbing his coat and her own, knowing that the humans would find it strange if they didn't have one.

Walking through the town, Alice window shopped from her spot next to Jasper where he had his arm wrapped around her.

She suddenly stopped and stared at one store in particular, and Jasper glanced over at her. "What? What is it?" He turned to look at the store and then back at Alice. "A camera store?"

Alice nodded and pulled Jasper into the store. "Yeah, come on!" Alice happily browsed through the store, looking at all the different camera makes and models. "You know, we've never had our picture taken," she started quietly, looking up at Jasper through her lashes. "And," she continued, "the wedding _is _only a few days. We'll need a camera for that."

Seeing Alice's hopeful expression, and her even more hopeful emotions, Jasper couldn't say no just yet. "You've been thinking about this for a while, haven't you?"

"I suppose..okay, yes, I have. Obviously we need one for the wedding, and we have a store right here, Jasper it's perfect!"

Jasper sighed but agreed, knowing that a camera would be nice for the wedding. "What kind were you thinking of?"

Alice grinned and clapped her hands in excitement. "Contax S."

Jasper raised an eyebrow. "Yes, you definitely have thought about this a lot."

Alice ignored his remark, instead pulling Jasper over to see the display. "Look, it even has a horizontal focal-point shutter," she told Jasper, examining the camera closely.

"Do you even know what that means?"

Alice faltered, and Jasper just shook his head. "Well, no," she admitted, "but you have to admit, it sounds technical and professional. Doesn't it make you want one?"

Jasper laughed. "Alice, relax, we'll go back to the hotel, think about it and decide on the right camera, get the money, and come back later."

Alice fidgeted slightly, and Jasper raised an eyebrow again. Alice sighed and admitted sheepishly, "Well, I kind of...sort of...already knew we were going to come here and get one. And if we go back to the hotel...they'll sell out."

Sighing, Jasper rolled his eyes and held out his hand. "You have enough money for it, don't you?"

Alice nodded happily and dug through her purse, pulling out a large amount of cash. "Since we don't have an account at any banks," she explained, "I kind of just brought a random amount. It's more than enough though."

"Fine. We'll get the camera, happy?"

Alice nodded and grinned at him. "Extremely. Thank you, Jasper."

Jasper sighed but gave her a small smile, walking up to the front register. "Excuse me," he said politely to the man working there, "but you do you have any of the Contax S cameras in stock right now?"

The human blinked once and nodded, glancing at Alice before his lust spiked. Jasper bit back the growl as the man nervously offered to go get it out of the back.

"It's even charged already!" Alice told Jasper quietly, excitement bubbling over in her voice.

"Did you see the way he was looking at you? And the lust, ugh!" Jasper growled, glaring at the door leading to the back room.

Alice rolled her eyes and put her hand on Jasper's shoulder. "Calm down, don't worry about it, just ignore it. As soon as we get the camera, we'll go."

As the man came back into view, Jasper's hand clenched into a fist at his side, but he nodded tensely to Alice to show that he would behave.

Forty-five minutes later, Alice and Jasper walked out of the store, Alice carrying the camera in her hands, examining it carefully. She held it up and went to take a picture of Jasper, sticking her tongue out in concentration to get the angle on his face just right. Jasper laughed just as she snapped the picture, and Alice smiled, knowing without even needing to See that it would turn out wonderful.

With a sudden burst of excitement, Alice grabbed Jasper's hand and began to run somewhere. "Come on!" she called to him.

"Where?"

Alice finally stopped running when she got to the center of the small town, glancing around once before walking straight up to a woman that was walking down the street across from them. "Excuse me!" she called to the lady, fingering the camera. "Excuse me, would you mind taking a picture of us?" she asked, gesturing to herself and Jasper, who had come to stand behind Alice.

The woman hesitated before shrugging. "Sure. Where would you like me to take it?"

"Just...right here is fine, right, Jazz?"

"Sure, Ali," he murmured into her hair, ignoring the woman standing there with their camera.

Alice pointed out what button the lady should push to take a picture, and then quickly moved to stand beside Jasper.

"Ready?" the woman asked. Alice nodded, smiling brightly at the camera while Jasper wrapped his arm around her protectively and smiled, looking down at Alice instead of the camera, a look of adoration clear on his face.

With an audible click, the kind woman smiled and handed the camera back to Alice. "You two are very photogenic."

"Thank you. We really appreciate that." The woman nodded and smiled once more at Alice.

"No problem, hun, I hope you have a nice day." She gathered up her bags and started to walk away.

A single rain drop fell from the sky suddenly, before thousands start falling quickly after it. Alice glanced up at the sky and smiled, while Jasper just shook his head. "We should probably get back to the hotel, Ali."

"Why?" she pouted, giving Jasper the puppy dog eyes.

Jasper just shook his head and laughed, pointing to the camera. "I don't think that it's water-proof."

Alice shrieked when she realized the camera was starting to get wet and she stuffed it into her jacket, wanting to keep it as dry as possible. Looking up at the rain-filled sky one more time, Alice sighed and took Jasper's hans to start their walk back to the hotel. "You're right," she admitted grudgingly, though she wasn't as annoyed as she pretended to be.

How could she be when everything seemed so utterly right right then?

_Longer than nine pages! This chapter is longer than nine full pages! Sorry, that's really good for me. I'm pretty happy with how this chapter turned out, and if you couldn't tell from how big the wedding played a part in this chapter, it's coming up...next! And I got it out quicker than last chapter, too._

_On a different note, the Twilight Awards have started, if you didn't already know. I have a link to it on my profile._

_I've also just recently realized that there was a story on here by the same name about Alice and Jasper's first two years. No, they didn't copy mine or anything, I actually posted mine after them, but apparently there's got deleted or they deleted or whatever, but when I first realized this, I was afraid that someone was going to like...accuse me of stealing their story or something. I didn't, by the way._

_Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own it, I am simply borrowing Stephenie's wonderful characters. Did you know Jasper's name was originally supposed to be _Ronald? _I find that hilarious, and I also wonder if I would like him as much if she had kept his name that...Nah, I'd love him the same._

_~Tally_


	16. The Wedding Day

"I'll miss you," Jasper told her, kissing the top of her head softly.

"I'll miss you, too," Alice smiled up at Jasper, washing away any fears that he may have had before. "I'll see you tomorrow," she promised before following Charlotte out the door and to the room she would be staying in for the rest of the day.

She had insisted that they were apart a full twenty-four hours before the wedding, but now she wasn't so sure that she wanted to leave him. Still, Alice dutifully stayed with Charlotte instead of running back to Jasper's waiting arms like she _really _wanted to right now.

"Do you already have my dress, Charlotte?"

"Of course, Alice, but the dress comes last," Charlotte smiled at Alice, who was carefully looking over her wedding dress before sighing and nodding turning back to Charlotte. "What else do you have to do to get ready, first?" Charlotte asked.

Alice suddenly smiled mischievously and took in Charlotte's weathered appearance. Her hair was knotty, and Alice frowned when she saw the dirt under her nails. "Charlotte, sweetheart, we need major help for this, we are going to a spa to prepare."

Charlotte's eyes widened as she stared at Alice with an incredulous look on her face.

Alice smirked. "Come on!"

"But I don't have any money to pay for it!" Charlotte protested.

Alice shook her head and smirked at Charlotte. "Of course you're not going to pay, silly! I may be the one getting married," she sighed happily there before continuing on determinedly, "but I don't think Peter would mind if you got all dolled up."

"Well...if you're sure...and only if you do to."

Alice giggled. "Of course. And don't worry, I know you'll be able to handle it."

She grinned slyly, and Charlotte smiled weakly in return.

They had a full day ahead of them.

****

Jasper shifted nervously as he waited for Alice to appear. Peter shot him an annoyed look, but Jasper just ignored him. Being away from Alice made him uneasy, and he was eager to finally see her after a long twenty four hours apart.

The moment he saw her though, all thought left him for a moment. Just a moment. Really, he insisted. In all actuality though, it must have been a minute before he fully realized that this breathtaking woman in front of him was his soon-to-be wife, someone who wanted to quite literally spend eternity with him.

She looked beautiful all the time, in his opinion, the first day at the diner, just after hunting, dancing in the rain, even when they were soaking wet...

But this. If he had thought she looked beautiful before, she must have been an angel now. He knew how corny it sounded, but staring at her, in the dress that she had designed all herself, it was completely true. The dress reached her knees, and she had told him what type it was, but he never seemed to pay attention when she told him, more focused on her instead. Small white roses were sewn into the lace and it was cap-sleeved, he remembered, but that was about it.

She walked gracefully up to him, in her hand a small bouquet of daisies. He smiled, knowing those were her favorite type of flower. Well, second favorite, he amended, right after bluebells, of course.

She slowly came to stand in front of him, smiling brightly as she looked upon him. As he stared at her now, she reminded him of a small pixie, the way she stood—so small!—and her hair blowing ever so slightly in the wind. All she needed were the wings to complete the look. Her hair was still spiked in every which way, but there was a certain curl to it now—a subtle curl that one wouldn't notice too easily. Unless you were a Jasper observing his Alice, of course.

The crisp night air shifted around them, blowing the priest's scent his way, but Jasper didn't even notice the smell, to caught up in the girl in front of him, the girl he would proudly be able to call his wife soon. The full moon shone down brightly and happily, as if reflecting their moods and illuminating their pale skin and giving the two of them an ethereal look. There were small lights hanging up for the single human's sake, and fireflies danced all around them.

Peter and Charlotte were sitting off to the side, both of them emanating warm emotions. But it was nothing compared to the wonderful glow that Alice was giving off. Her emotions were so happy and bright, fitting the perfect image he had of her just then.

Even with such a small wedding, Alice was infinitely happy. He smiled. If she was happy with such a small, intimate affair, then it didn't matter, not really.

"Less than ten minutes," Alice murmured to Jasper warmly, too low for the human to hear.

"Can you believe that we're actually here?"

Alice smiled and they shared a long look. With a sudden burst of strong, happy emotion, Jasper almost stumbled back from the sheer force before grinning like crazy.

"Sorry," she mumbled, obviously not meaning to overwhelm him.

"No, it's fine," Jasper answered back, still in a blissful daze.

"I just wanted you to know, this is the happiest I've ever been in my life. Except maybe the day I met you," she whispered. Jasper smiled more softly now, touched.

"This is the happiest I've ever been, too. And one the most hopeful."

Alice smiled and started to raise her hand as if to brush his skin and gently push the hair that was in his face back, but she realized where they were and pulled her hand back, clenching it into a fist and smiling at him in a reassuring way.

Jasper hardly payed attention to anything around him that wasn't Alice anymore, going through the wedding by memory alone now, and not really paying attention.

"Do you, Jasper Whitlock, take Alice Cullen to be your lawfully wedded wife?" The priest finally asked.

Jasper nodded, "I do." he murmured.

"And do you, Alice Cullen, take Jasper Whitlock to be your lawfully wedded husband?"

"I do," her soft, musical voice brought Jasper back to reality as he realized how close they really were.

"Then I now declare you, husband and wife. You may now kiss the bride."

Jasper pulled Alice close and tipped her chin up. "I love you." he whispered quietly before capturing her lips in his. Alice dropped her bouquet to the ground and pulled herself closer than what was probably acceptable, but right then, at that moment, she didn't care.

Peter and Charlotte looked on, and the priest looked a bit taken aback, but they didn't really care pay attention to anything besides one another right then.

Because it was just Alice and Jasper now. Together forever.

****

"May I have this dance, Mrs. Whitlock?" Jasper held his hand out to Alice, smiling crookedly at her.

"You may, Mr. Whitlock."

She placed her hand in his, smiling up at Jasper softly as he twirled her once before pulling her close again. "How's your wedding so far, Mrs. Whitlock? Is it everything you ever dreamed that it would be?"

"Even better than I could have dreamed," she told him softly, leaning her head against his chest as they danced to the quiet music.

With such an unorthodox wedding anyway, they were now simply dancing at the hotel restaurant, despite the fact that they couldn't eat.

"We're going to have to stop dancing soon," Alice told him softly as they continued their spinning.

"Why?"

"Just wait," she advised, and not five minutes later, she was proven right.

"Out of al you couples out there, how many of you are newlyweds? If you've been married for less than a year, I'm talking to you," the lead singer of the band that was playing there called out.

One couple looked up, while Alice simply continued to dance in Jasper's arms, both of them paying half-attention to the man a little ways away from them.

"We're going to be having a competition of sorts, I'm going to see who here has been married for the longest. I'm sorry to say, if you're a newlywed, you're going to have to leave the dance floor for now. You can always come back later, don't forget."

"Come on, Jazz." She took his hand and smiled up at him before faltering ever so slightly when she saw the smirk on his face.

Struck with a sudden vision, Alice looked up at him in surprise before she gave him her own smirk.

"I guess we _have _to go," was all he said.

"I guess so." She pretended to sigh before grinning slyly up at him once more as he pulled her to the nearby elevator..

****

Their hotel door flew open as Jasper pulled Alice in after himself, bringing her flush up against himself as they hurried in.

"If you rip this dress," Alice threatened, pulling Jasper's jacket off and fumbling with his tie.

Jasper chuckled as he pressed his lips against hers again and again. Finally growling softly, Alice ripped his tie off of his neck and started on the buttons of his shirt. "What happened to not ripping our clothes?" he breathed in her ear.

"I just said you can't rip my dress. It's one of a kind. Your...suit...is replaceable..." she muttered at him as she kissed the scar above his brow. Jasper froze before relaxing into her again, knowing that this would be different. Different from anything else.

With deliberate slowness, Jasper pulled at her dress, and Alice growled impatiently. Jasper laughed softly before pressing her body against his even tighter and sending her a wave of all the love that he felt for her.

Alice gasped and wound her fingers through his hair, attempting to pull _him _even closer than their bodies were—something that proved to be impossible, as they could no longer bring themselves closer.

They kissed once more on the lips, and Jasper smiled against her happily.

****

Alice held up dress after dress, standing next to their suitcase and turning to look at Jasper.

"The red one, or the yellow one?" she finally asked him as Jasper buttoned up his shirt and tucked it into his slacks.

Jasper glanced up and pursed his lips before answering. "The yellow one."

Alice nodded and pulled the dress back out of the suitcase and setting the red one in, zipping it up. she smiled at Jasper and asked, "So where are we going?" as she put the bright yellow dress on.

"Don't you already know?" Jasper teased her.

Alice grinned and nodded. "Yes, but I know you wanted to surprise me. I'm even practicing the look I'll have when we get there." She made a face as if she were surprised before glancing at Jasper again. "So what do you think?" she checked.

Jasper laughed and pulled her against his chest, where his shirt was still half-buttoned. "It's amazing, I think you might even be able to fool me."

Alice giggled and nodded looking up to Jasper's face and saying, "Good. If I can fool you, I can fool anybody."

"Are you sure about that?" Jasper smirked and pulled away then, surveying Alice. "Are you ready to leave yet?"

Alice glanced around the room once more before nodding. "Yep," she told him, grinning now. "We just have to grab the suitcase."

Smiling, Jasper spun Alice and pulled her back to him as he looked around too. "Time to go, I guess," he murmured in her ear.

"One day we'll have to come back here," Alice said thoughtfully, and Jasper nodded in agreement before grudgingly letting her go and picking up the bag she had full of clothes while Alice gently carried a single item out herself, not wanting to wrinkle the wedding dress in the suitcase.

"Everything else is out in the car?" he verified, and at Alice's nod, they left the hotel room, saying goodbye to Peter and Charlotte, and finally leaving, the destination already in mind.

After driving for a couple days—the joys of not needing to sleep—and quite a few stops for gasoline, they were finally there.

Alice stared up at the familiar building, glancing at Jasper, and then back at the building. Smiling, she got out of the car and took Jasper's hand as they both entered together, leaving their things in the car to get later.

Jasper pulled a key out of his pocket and carefully held it out to Alice, smiling when he saw her eye's light up.

"I know that I already knew where we were going, but still, it's nice to be back," she admitted softly, unlocking the door and turning the knob.

They both walked into the room, and Alice's smile widened as she looked around, taking in the room with a fine layer of dust covering it. Even so, it seemed wonderful to them.

"It's good to be back."

"Yeah. It's good to be home," Jasper agreed, and he wrapped his arm around her before stepping fully into the apartment, smiling when he saw the radio. "And it's exactly as we left it."

_Short, much? Gah, I should have written more __*Sad face*. On the plus side, my wonderful Alice and Jasper (that are not actually mine) are now married!_

_So, about the...suggestive sex scene. I'm not going to be writing any lemons, or anything really graphic, for that matter, so should I change the rating to "M", or can I leave it at "T," since it that's all it will be, suggestive? And yes, it did seem kind of choppy, well, to me at least, but I guess I kind of just wanted to capture little bits of the entire wedding day._

_Disclaimer: Yes, I created the wonderful Alice and Jasper...that's why I'm writing on fanfiction about the side couple. Yeah...no._

_~Tally_


	17. Home Again

_"It's good to be back."_

_"Yeah. It's good to be home," Jasper agreed, and he wrapped his arm around her before stepping fully into the apartment, smiling when he saw the radio. "And it's exactly as we left it."_

_**_

__"Should we unpack now, or would you like to visit John and Katherine?" Jasper asked as they settled into the couch, Alice perched on his lap. "Or we could just stay here, too," he added on after a moment.

_"Well..."_ Jasper laughed, knowing what she wanted to do. "it's just that we haven't seen them for a while," Alice explained. "I say we go visit them. We can unpack tonight. After all, we don't have to sleep," she smiled, and Jasper nodded.

"Alright," he agreed, smiling softly at the way her eyes lit up. "Although I think we may be...otherwise preoccupied tonight. Still, would you like to go see them now?"

Alice jumped up and started bouncing slightly in place. "Can we go now?"

Jasper laughed loudly again. "Come on, my little pixie, let's go say hello again."

They left their apartment at a slow _vampire _pace to go say hello again after not seeing John and Katherine in months. "It's so nice to be back again," Alice told Jasper, grinning as she skipped ahead.

Jasper nodded in agreement. "Most definitely."

Alice stopped for Jasper to catch up with her again. "I think we should go say hello to Clara, too, later. And Marilyn. Can't forget her."

"Alright, we'll go later, okay?"

Alice nodded and glanced down the empty hallway to the apartment that John and Katherine were renting.

As they neared their friends' apartment, Jasper suddenly stiffened before pulling Alice closer to his body, stumbling back a few steps.

"What? Is something wrong?" she looked up at him and grabbed Jasper's hand in her own.

Jasper closed his eyes tensely and clenched his teeth. "The...hurt. And pain, and sadness. It's covered over, but it's like a dull throb, always there," he told her, looking at Alice so sadly that she squeezed his hand tight in her own and thought of every happy moment in her life that she could.

Jasper sighed and his brow smoothed, but he kept his eyes closed. "Thank you," he murmured. Alice nodded thought he couldn't see, and finally Jasper opened his eyes. "Sorry. I'm ready now."

"Why would they feel so sad and upset?" Alice wondered aloud.

"I don't know...I guess we will find out." He knocked on the door, and a few seconds later, it was opened and Alice and Jasper were staring at John, Tommy in his arms.

Jasper's hand willingly found Alice's again as he stiffened marginally.

"Jasper? Alice?"'

"Hi John," Alice gave him a hug and smiled at the little boy in his arms. She knew that this was the source of the pain that Jasper was feeling, and she wished more than anything right then that she could erase the pain her friend and lover were feeling in the instant.

****

"Where's Katherine?"Alice asked as she and Jasper sat down opposite of John and his son.

"She left."

"What? What do you mean? When?" Alice glanced down at the cup of coffee he had given her earlier.

"A couple months ago, sometime in January," he swallowed and glanced down at the oblivious boy at his feet. "She just up and left. She took Tommy to the grocery store, and I got a call later when somebody recognized him. Kathy wasn't there."

Alice froze and her eyes widened. She looked over at Jasper to see that he had realized the same thing that she had.

"That's...terrible," Alice murmured, reaching out her hand to comfort him before pulling back abruptly, realizing what she was doing.

"Is there any way we could help you?" Jasper asked him softly. Alice knew that he was using the little oxygen he had in his lungs to speak with John, and despite the sadness, her heart swelled with pride for her husband.

"No. Thank you, really, but we'll be fine," John picked up Tommy. "Right, Tommy?"

Tommy nodded fervently, happy to be included in the 'adult talk.' Despite what John had said, Jasper gently eased the sadness he felt carefully. He couldn't erase it altogether—that wouldn't help at all in the long run—but he did help John feel better than he had in a long time, Jasper was sure.

"Are you sure?" Alice asked him, giving John a long look.

John nodded. "I'm sure. Don't worry, you two head back now, I'll talk to you later. Just don't go running off again."

This time not caring about the temperature differences, Alice grabbed John's hands and looked him in the eye.

"We'll be here for you, don't worry."

John looked shocked for a moment at how cool her skin was, but he quickly shook it off and nodded carefully at Alice. He watched as she gently let go of his hands and turned to look back at Jasper. "I'm so sorry," she murmured once to John, sadly looking at him, before silently walking to the door with Jasper.

"Jasper this is horrible!"Alice cried as soon as they were out of John's hearing distance. She was quiet for a little as they headed back up to their apartment. "Poor Katherine," she whispered finally. "Poor Esme. Poor _John, _to think that his wife ran off when really, she never had a choice. How did I not realize...?"

"Humans die all the time, Alice," Jasper pointed out, "It's the way of life."

"I know, but this is John and Katherine!"

"No; I know, unfortunately, there is nothing we can do now," Jasper told her wisely, mournfully.

"How do you think Esme is holding up?" Alice asked as they entered their living room.

"I don't know, you haven't _seen _them in a while, have you?"

"A month or two," she said offhandedly, but already she was searching them out in her visions, trying to focus on seeing their future family. Jasper watched as her eyes glazed over before the vision ended and she frowned. Persistently, she tried looking into the future again, only to look even more frustrated in the end.

"What's wrong?" Jasper asked quickly.

Alice grimaced. "I can't see them. It's all blank, and it' really annoying."

"What do you mean? Like, if they had been...destroyed?"

"No," Alice hesitated and tried once more, frowning again when it didn't work. "Not like that. More like they just vanished off the face of the earth, but they didn't die, no."

Jasper pursed his lips before he answered her. "I don't know what to tell you, Alice. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens."

"But what if something really bad happened to them, or is going to happen to them?" she protested.

"What would we do if something did happen to them? We have a less idea than even before of where they are," Jasper told her patiently.

Alice sighed and looked up at Jasper. "You're right," she agreed sullenly. "There's nothing else we can do."

Jasper wrapped his arms around her and kissed the top of her head briefly, trying to distract her. "So I was thinking...that bed in the other room, we haven't been putting it to very good use since we first moved in here."

Alice grinned and threw her head straight back to look Jasper in the eye, now distracted with a little help from his ability. She stood on the very tips of her toes to press kiss to his chin, even then making Jasper have to bend down. Jasper grinned slyly and scooped her up in his arms, carrying her into the bedroom. He dropped her carefully onto the bed, the sheets ruffling beneath them as he slipped onto the bed next to her, and pressed his lips against her in a flurry of kisses.

****

The next morning, Alice sat and watched Jasper from her perch on the top of the car as he unloaded everything from their Cadillac.

"That doesn't go there," she cautioned him as he started to set a single box next to her clothes.

"What do you mean? It's clothes, isn't it? I'm putting all the clothes right there." Jasper pointed toward the accumulating pile of Alice's clothes where he had set the box.

"No, _that _box is all of our wedding things, including my dress, and your tuxedo," she grinned and pointed just a little ways away. "Just put it over there. Yeah, that's good right there."

Jasper set the box down gently, knowing Alice would get mad if he just dropped it. Turning, Jasper reached in the car to grab the last thing out—his guitar.

"Alice! Jasper!" Jasper looked up at the sound of his name, as did Alice, to see John heading towards them.

"Hi!" Alice waved excitedly from her spot on the car and Jasper just nodded to him.

"Is this all the stuff you guys had? It's not much," John said, looking over all of their things.

"Yeah," Alice agreed. "It's not much, but that's not a big deal."

"Did you have that before?" John asked suddenly, gesturing toward Alice's left hand.

Alice glanced down at where her ring was resting on her finger and glanced back at John. "Of course," she giggled, grinning at him, "I always wore it around my neck. On a necklace. I just decided to put it on now."

Jasper glanced up at her wryly before pulling the guitar out. "So where's Tommy?" Jasper asked as he ducked inside the car one more time on the pretense of looking for anything else when he was really trying to breathe in fresh, human-less air before holding his breath and turning to look back at John.

"He's at his grandmother's house a on the other side of town to stay the night with her. Would you like some help with that?"

Jasper shrugged so John picked up one of the clothing boxes before almost dropping it in shock. "Are all these boxes this heavy?" he asked incredulously.

Alice laughed quietly and hopped off of the car. "No, don't worry. It's just the clothes." She picked up one box with ease, only pretending to struggle for the human's sake.

"Would you like some help with that?" Jasper teased her lightly as he headed inside the building.

Alice stuck her tongue out at his receding back and hurried to catch up with him, John in between them.

"How is he today?" she asked Jasper quietly as she quickened her stride to match his, before she ended up side by side with him

Jasper sighed. "He's trying to be happy. But the hurt's still there."

"Do you think it will ever go away?"

"No," Jasper shook his head and glanced over at John. "Not completely. Eventually, he'll feel better, and it won't hurt as much, but the pain will never truly go away."

Alice sighed sadly and glanced back at John too. "I fell horrible about this, Jasper. Like, by trying to find the Cullens now, we're somehow betraying John."

"Alice," Jasper admonished. "Don't think that, because it's not true. Esme didn't even realize what she had done until it had already happened, I'm sure."

John was nearing them now, because they had stopped, and Alice didn't say anything in reply, instead opting to squeeze Jasper's hand once and smile at him.

"Does either of you have the key?" John asked nervously, since they had just been standing outside their door.

"Oh, don't worry, it's unlocked," Alice explained as Jasper opened the door and let her walk in before him. "Can you two set the boxes in the bedroom? Oh wait, Jasper you have the...okay, put your box down in the living room, okay?"

"Alright," he shrugged and set the box down where he was standing.

"In here?" John asked, gesturing to their bedroom door.

Alice nodded, and John went into the other room to set her clothes down. Alice followed after him a few steps behind to set her own box down. As soon as John had set down the box, he glanced at his watch before looking up at Alice quickly.

"I have to go now, I hope you don't mind," he explained in a rush of words.

"Oh? Where do you have to go?"

"I have to get ready to head to the courthouse. I still have to," he stopped and looked away, trying to hide the fact that he had started crying again. "Some of Kathy's things are still there. I haven't picked them up yet."

"It's okay to still be upset, John," Alice murmured to him.

"I have to go."

He left quickly, for a human, and Alice sighed, coming to stand next to Jasper once he had gone. "There's nothing you can do, Alice," Jasper reassured her.

Alice sighed again and turned to look at Jasper. "Come on, we need to finish getting everything from outside."

As they headed outside again, Alice suddenly held her hand out to stop Jasper, freezing in her tracks. "Wait," she told him, "I need to check something."

"Go ahead," Jasper agreed.

Alice turned to look outside, not seeing the present anymore. After a minute or two, she turned back to Jasper and smiled brilliantly. "I have an idea," was all she said to him before pulling him outside the rest of the way, not giving him another clue as to what she meant.

****

_Hehe, hey guys...if anybody's still there. I'm so, so sorry for taking so long, and I could pile on a load of excuses as to why (including a big english project/paper) but I'll just cut it short. It took me forever to get this chapter even typed up, because I'm kind stuck on where I want it to go now. I don't want to rush it, but I don't want it to move too slowly, either. Anything you really want to see in it? Leave it in a review, and I'll try to add it if I can._

_I started a writing contest, if you want to know more about it, go to my profile._

_Reviews would be wonderful, but I've taken so long, and I can't guarantee the next chapter won't take a little while, either, so I don't deserve it...*sad face*_

_Disclaimer: If only._


	18. The Joys of Babysitting

Days passed after that. Eventually, the days turned into weeks, and the weeks turned into months until summer had passed in a whirlwind of scorching heat to any human, and staying inside as the sun shone all throughout the town. It was August now, and Alice and Jasper were currently watching Marilyn and Tommy.

"So why did we do this again, Alice?" Jasper asked again as he watched Tommy and Marilyn running in circles around him, extremely hyper. He had already attempted to calm them down, and, in short, it hadn't worked.

Alice laughed quietly as she watched the children, too. "Clara and John went out to lunch and we offered to watch them," she explained, smiling happily. "Mary, Tommy, would you guys like something to eat?"

"Yeah!"

"Yep!"

Alice led them into the small kitchen, and Jasper followed after the three of them. "No," he corrected her. "_You _offered to watch them, after _you _set them up on a date."

"It's not a date. I told you, I saw them in a vision. They're going to be really good friends. Did you know that in all the time that they've both lived here, they've hardly spoken two words to each other?" she turned back to the kids. "What do you guys want?"

"Macaroni and Cheese!" Marilyn piped up in excitement, happy to be able to choose.

"PB and J," Tommy disagreed.

Alice bit her lip to keep from laughing at the serious expression on Tommy's face. Obviously this peanut butter and jelly sandwich was important to him. "Alright. How about this, I'll make you Mac and cheese, Mary, and I'll make _you _a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. _If we have any..."_ she added the last part under her breath, not sure what human food they would have.

Jasper laughed at her worried comment as Alice searched through all of the cabinets to find something for the kids to eat. Alice turned around once to stick her tongue out at him before turning back to her current hunt, though it was a little different than normal.

"Oh," she breathed quietly when she was done searching. "Um, Tommy, sweetie, we don't have any peanut butter. Or jelly."

"I want PB and J," Tommy insisted stubbornly.

"I know honey, but we don't have any," Alice repeated.

"PB and J!" his face screwed up like he was about to cry, and in two quick steps, Jasper picked Tommy up and held him in his arms to comfort him before the little boy burst into tears.

Alice watched in amazement as Jasper held the child in his arms easily. He was doing phenomenal with both the children, both in his bloodlust, and in how smoothly he could take care of them. He had been worried at first, but obviously he was doing quite well with them.

The two of them had been bickering about it earlier when he had been worrying about what might happen.

"Alice, what if I can't do it?" he had asked her in a panic.

"Jasper, you have been doing so well lately, and these are _children _that you've come to care about. You won't do anything, I'm sure of it. I don't need visions to tell me that," Alice had told him confidently.

In the end, Jasper had just sighed and grudgingly agreed to help, because really, there was no where else to go. The sun was out still, and they were both stuck inside for the day.

"Alice?" Marilyn tugged on her skirt, and Alice glanced down at the little girl.

"Yes sweetie?"

"We can go to the store to get Tommy food," she explained to Alice as if the thought hadn't crossed her mind.

"Well, actually, we can't, I'm afraid. I'm sorry."

"Why?"

"Well..." Thinking on her feet, Alice leaned down and placed her mouth to Marilyn's ear as if she were going to tell her a secret, and then said loud enough for Tommy to hear, but still quietly. "I don't like the sun."

"What?" Marilyn cried in shock. She looked at Alice in surprise, appalled.

Alice nodded her head dramatically. "Yep. I'm _scared _of it."

"No! Really?"

Alice nodded again, and Marilyn started giggling. "But don't tell anyone," she warned the two of them, "It's really embarrassing."

"Don't worry Alice, I'll keep your secret safe. Tommy will too, won't you, Tommy?"

"Do I get Mac and Cheese?"

"Oh alright," Marilyn pretended to sigh in exasperation, but she turned to wink at Alice.

"Great!" Alice declared, clapping her hands. "I'll start making it now, is that alright?"

The two children nodded, so Alice turned to look questioningly at Jasper, her unspoken question hanging in the air.

Jasper chuckled and set Tommy down. "I'll get it for you, don't worry. I know you'd have to get a stool for it," he teased lightly.

Alice rolled her eyes but didn't say anything in response as he pulled a box of Macaroni and Cheese off the top shelf of their unused cabinets.

****

It took _many _tries (for which Alice was thankful they had bought so many boxes of Macaroni and Cheese), but finally, two completely burn-free bowls of Macaroni and Cheese sat in front of the two kids.

"When's my mommy coming back?" Marilyn asked between bites, looking at Alice and Jasper expectantly.

"I don't know," Alice answered honestly, watching the girl eat her food. "How do you like it? Does it taste good?" she pressed.

Tommy grinned at Alice. "It tastes yummy!" he declared happily, and Alice smiled.

"Here that, Jazz? We can make Macaroni and Cheese!"

"Great," Jasper joked, "Now we just need to find a way to use that."

"Now you guys can eat it all the time!" Marilyn told them, and Jasper wrinkled his nose in disgust when she turned back to her food a moment later.

Alice laughed quietly while the two kids just continued eating their food, oblivious to Alice and Jasper's reaction to the proposal.

"Your parents are going to be here in ten minutes," she told them casually, having just had a vision. But they didn't need to know that part.

"Yay!" Tommy cried.

"Aw...Alice, we never got to play dress-up."

Alice laughed again. "Don't worry Mary, we'll play next time, okay? I promise."

Marilyn nodded, appeased, and went back to her food. By the time they had finished and started cleaning the dishes (Alice had made it a game for them), ten minutes was up, and everybody looked up at the knock on the door before the kids went back to washing off their plates and drying them.

"Come on in!" Alice called to John and Clara, who came into the kitchen a few seconds later.

"Who are you and what have you done to my kid?" Clara asked in amusement, to which Marilyn spun around. "Mommy!" She ran to wrap her arms around her mother while Tommy continued washing the last dish in the sink.

"Haha! I won!" Tommy cried, looking triumphant.

Alice smiled and gave Jasper a look. "Good job, Tommy!_ Give him his prize," _she whispered the last part to Jasper, who shook his head in amusement.

Still, Jasper pulled his wallet out and held out 25 cents to Tommy, who grinned and snatched it out of Jasper's hand. "Thank you," he said in a rush.

John smiled and took Tommy's free hand before looking back at Alice and Jasper. "How much do I owe you?" he asked them.

"Oh, it was nothing, don't worry about it, either of you."

"Are you sure, I can—"

"Don't worry about it," Alice reassured.

John shrugged and slipped his wallet back in his pocket.

"I wanna win," Marilyn sniffled quietly, and Jasper crouched down in front of her, pulling a quarter out of his pocket and 'sneakily' giving it to her before standing up and winking at her, bringing a finger to his lips to mime for her to not tell anyone, though it had happened in plain sight.

Marilyn smiled vibrantly, and wrapped her arms around Jasper's legs in a hug.

"Thank you, Jasper," she exclaimed.

Jasper smiled softly. "You're welcome, Marilyn."

With that, Clara and John left with their respective children, and Alice turned to look at the mess that was their kitchen. She wrinkled her nose in disgust and shook her head. "The cheese smells disgusting," she told Jasper, and he nodded in agreement.

"Most definitely."

"I guess we should get this cleaned up, and then we've got the rest of the day. We should probably hunt tonight, but obviously we can't go out right now." Alice glanced at the window where a curtain was covering it, stopping any sunlight that might have been able to seep in and stopping her from looking out effectively.

Jasper wrinkled his nose at having to have to clean up the rest of the human food, but he obediently started to clean up the kitchen with Alice, doing it at vampire speed to get everything done as soon as possible.

"Oh!" Alice gasped quietly as she wiped off the counter a little later.

"What?" Jasper asked her curiously.

"I was just thinking...hm. Jasper, where's the camera we bought a couple months ago?"

"Um, I think it's in the bedroom, in your closet behind all the clothes," Jasper told her. "Why?"

"Oh, no reason. I'll just...be right back."

When Alice came back thirty seconds later, she was clutching the camera in her hands, holding it up. "Smile," she told Jasper.

Jasper looked up at her. "What?"

Snap.

Alice smiled and then turned to walk out of the kitchen silently. "Wait, where are you going?" Jasper called after her, before he sighed and followed behind her to see her now taking pictures at every which angle of the living room. "Um, Alice, what are you doing?"

"Well," she started to explain, "When we leave, I want to make sure we have pictures of this place. Our first real home. We could leave tomorrow, or in two months, or in two years! I want to remember Elkins." Never mind the fact that she had a perfect photographic memory.

"Let me take your picture then, come here," he came up right behind her and grabbed the camera out of her hands, holding it above his head when she tried to reach for it in protest. "Come on, just one picture."

Alice sighed but went to stand where he was pointing for her to stand. "Is here good?"

"Perfect." He snapped the picture and then lowered the camera from his face, smiling at Alice. Jasper moved over to her then and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close to him before holding the camera up to take a picture of the both of them. With the picture taken, the camera was set on the couch distractedly.

Alice smiled shyly and kissed Jasper's cheek as he watched her with adoration. Carefully, he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear as it fell in front of her face before he grabbed her hand and kissed it.

"Do you think we would be able to hunt, now?" Jasper asked after a little longer of peaceful silence.

"Mm," she moaned against his chest, glancing up at him finally. "I guess so," she relented. "Would you like to go now?"

Jasper chuckled as he rested his chin on the top of her head. "No. We can stay here for a little bit longer."

"I still haven't seen the Cullens again," Alice confessed to Jasper quietly.

Jasper groaned at the ruined moment but pulled away from Alice to look at her. "Don't worry, Ali, I'm sure they're fine."

"But why are there holes in my vision? It's so frustrating!"

"Don't worry, darling, we'll figure out why this is happening soon."

"But..." she trailed off, and her lower lip trembled. "but what if this means my vision is leaving me?"

"Have you been able to see anything else?" Jasper asked, looking her in the eye.

"Yes, everything except the Cullens."

"Well then, I'm sure you're not losing it. I'm positive."

Alice sighed but nodded finally and pulled away from Jasper to glance out the window. "It's dark now," she told him quietly.

"Would you like to hunt with me?"

Alice nodded.

"Alright. You can go get changed, and then we can leave. I know how you'd hate to get that dress dirty."

Alice smiled at him. "Thank you Jasper. I'll be just a minute."

It was only after _ten _minutes that Alice was finally ready to leave. Jasper hadn't been hunting in a little less than a week, and his throat was already starting to burn. Alice wasn't feeling as bad but it was getting uncomfortable.

They stayed nearby though, and Alice sped through the forest silently, Jasper ahead of her quite a bit, stalking quickly after a bear for his newest meal.In the end, she settled for only going after a herd of deer that had been passing through, despite the fact that herbivores never tasted that good.

She finished as quick as possible and went back around to the little clearing they had found a long time ago to wait for him.

As she waited for him thought, Alice's mind wandered. She was thankful that Jasper didn't feel the need to toy with the animals before he killed them like she had seen Emmett would often do with the grizzlies he hunted. Alice laughed quietly to herself when she remembered the various visions she had had of Emmett hunting, but her giggling stopped the moment that Jasper stepped into the little clearing. She frowned when he walked back into her view, fidgeting with his shirt slightly as if that would hide what had happened to it. His shirt that had been ripped to shreds.

She scowled at him, and Jasper rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "The bear got in a really good scratch," he tried to defend himself, but Alice just shook her head silently in exasperation. Chuckling quietly, Alice, more amused than annoyed really, started to walk back home with Jasper silently.

"You know, that was one of your only good shirts," Alice said conversationally as they strolled through the forest, almost home, "Are you sure you didn't do that on purpose?"

She smirked, and Jasper laughed at her remark before wrapping his arm around her, and smiling as if he didn't have a care in the world. And right at that moment, he didn't.

****

_Special thanks to those of you who reviewed, you guys are all amazingly awesome, seriously! I love you all!_

_So a way quicker update, huh? Has anybody caught on to why Alice can't see the Cullens? Only one person has noticed (or at least mentioned) it, and I thought I made it pretty obvious, but maybe you were just focused on other things. So this chapter kind of wrote itself out for me, but I'm kind of stuck on the next one._

_Has anybody been doing those Twilight Riddles? I started the other day, and I'm stuck on 72. I thought I had the answer, but it's wrong, and the clues aren't helping._

_Disclaimer: From now on, I will have one posted on my profile, and the first chapter. But for this chapter, I don't own Twilight._


	19. Birthday Party!

"Jasper?"

Jasper looked up from the book he was reading to glance at Alice, who was curled up on the couch above him. "Hm?"

"What are we getting Marilyn for her birthday?" Alice asked, setting down the picture she had just been working on.

"Um," Jasper set his book down and pursed his lips, thinking about it. "I don't know. What do seven year olds like, anyway?"

Alice set her drawing pad on the coffee table, and Jasper peered at it out of the corner of his eye. "Maybe a new doll or something?" she suggested, staring off into space a few seconds later to try and _see _what they could get her.

Jasper was to busy staring at the picture she had been drawing. "Is that _me?" _he asked softly, pointing at it.

Alice blinked, coming out of her vision, and looked at where Jasper was pointing. "Huh? Oh, yes, it is."

Jasper gingerly picked the drawing up to look at the picture better. She had been drawing him at an angle, reading his book intently and leaning back against the couch, just as he had been doing. There was a soft smile playing at his lips in the drawing, his eyes scrunched slight in concentration. Jasper marveled at how well she had drawn him. "This is amazing," he told her honestly, and Alice looked away in embarrassment.

"Oh, that was just a quick little sketch. It's really nothing compared to some of the other things I've done," she murmured modestly.

"May I?" he asked, starting to flip the page up. Alice nodded, and Jasper turned the page the rest of the way to look at the picture. Quietly, he flipped through the rest of her notebook, silently appraising them. "I always knew you could draw, but Alice, this is amazing."

Alice beamed at the high praise, though she looked away to hide it. "I've been drawing since I was first...changed. I was rather horrible, though, in the beginning."

Jasper's eyes lit up. "Do you have any of your older drawings?"

"Yeah, I think so. Would you like to see them?"

"May I?"

"Sure!" Alice jumped up and danced gracefully to the bedroom, coming back a few minutes later with a small box. "I kept everything. Well, I think I did, anyway."

She handed him the box, and Jasper carefully opened it, sifting through all the papers. There were napkins, the edges of newspapers, and the occasional white paper. He smiled slightly and glanced up at Alice. "You've got quite a collection," he joked and continued to look through it all. When he was finally finished, Jasper set the box down on the table and then looked back at Alice. "I noticed that it was a lot of designs. Clothes and the like. Did you ever make any?"

Alice shook her head sadly. "No."

"I think you should someday," he told her, and Alice smiled slightly. "There was also a lot of myself, I notice," he continued on in a softer tone.

Jasper had a feeling that if she had been human, she would've blushed. "Sometimes, I would get a vision of you after a long time of not seeing you, and I would grab the closest piece of paper I had and pull out a pen or pencil or whatever I had handy and draw," she admitted.

"They're amazing," he complimented again.

Alice laughed in embarrassment and gathered up her box of drawings to take back into the bedroom. "Alright, enough of flattering Alice, we need to get back on track. Marilyn's birthday is in two days and we need to get her a birthday present. So...what should we get her?"

"I haven't gotten a child a present since I was twelve years old, and it was my little sister's fifth birthday, and I don't think Marilyn would want a new ribbon and bonnet, so I can't give you very good advice."

Alice laughed from the other room as she came back into his view. "Well you won't be much help. You're still coming to the toy store, though. We'll ask somebody there," she told him as she grabbed her purse.

"We're going now?" Jasper asked, surprised.

"Of course. I get the feeling this is going to take a while." Alice laughed, and Jasper just shrugged, getting up off the floor and dusting off his pants, grabbing his wallet and following an already prepared Alice, out the door.

****

"Happy birthday!"

"You came!" Marilyn ran up to Alice and Jasper standing in the doorway, giving each of them a hug.

"Of course we did," Alice told her, crouching down next to the girl. "We wouldn't miss your party for the world." Alice glanced back up at Jasper cautiously. She trusted him, but she knew that with so many people here, it was going to be hard, even if they had just hunted that day. He looked to be doing fine though, and Alice had a feeling that he wasn't actually breathing right then.

Satisfied, she turned back to Marilyn and handed the child her present. "Here you go, sweetheart," she told her, patting her on the head and standing back up. Marilyn squealed and clutched the present to her chest, turning and running back into the house to most likely find her mother.

Hastily, she turned around quickly to give them a rushed, "Thank you," before hurrying off again. Alice giggled quietly and Jasper smiled slightly.

It had taken them hours to find the right gift, but after much reassurance from the salesman, they had finally gotten her a baby doll and a small bassinet that they had brought over earlier to hide from the girl.

"Come on Jasper," Alice encouraged, leading him farther into the house. "We still have to say hello to Clara. John and Tommy should be around here too..."

****

"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear _Marilyn, _happy birthday to you..."

Marilyn clapped her hands in delight and closed her eyes tight, blowing out her candles in excitement. Alice took a picture with her camera, smiling with just as much excitement as Marilyn probably was.

"Who wants cake?" Clara called to the crowd. Alice wrinkled her noses automatically and tugged on Jasper's hand, pulling him out into the less crowded living room.

"Just a little longer, is that alright?" Alice answered his unspoken question, taking in his black eyes. "Marilyn is opening her presents soon, we'll leave right after that."

Jasper nodded and rested his head against the crook of her shoulder blade, breathing her scent in deeply. Alice gently ran her hand through his hair and smiled softly. "It's hard being around so many people. I'm not...used to it," he told her.

"Don't worry, you'll be fine. You've been doing great, and we've been here for two hours. I definitely think you're improving," she murmured to him.

Jasper smiled slightly and pressed his lips against her collarbone. "Thank you," he whispered.

Alice just smiled and took his hand, pulling him back into the kitchen when he was ready. Clara had finished handing out the pieces of cake, and Marilyn had already started on her small pile of presents. She had so far gotten a puzzle and a pair of pajamas, and was now ripping open the present Alice and Jasper had gotten her.

As soon as she opened the box and saw the doll, Marilyn tugged it out and hugged the doll to her chest tightly, looking up at Alice and Jasper from her perch on the kitchen counter. "Thank you!" she cried happily, staring down at her new gift.

"What are you going to name her?" Alice asked, smiling brightly now that she knew Marilyn liked her toy.

"Hm...I don't know. Mommy, what should I name her?"

"I don't know Mary, why don't you name her later though, alright?" Clara suggested as she looked at all the other guests and children who were getting impatient to have Marilyn open the gift _they _had gotten her.

"Alright. Thank you Alice, Jasper," Alice smiled again, as did Jasper, and her ruffled her hair slightly as Marilyn dropped the paper and box used to wrap her gift from them, keeping hold on her new doll even as she opened her next present.

Marilyn stared at the toy car in front of her blankly, as if she were trying to figure out how or why she would play with it.

An older woman stepped forward and carefully took the present from Marilyn, smiling sheepishly. "Sorry hun," she told her, pulling a different present out of her bag. "That's my nephew's present. I got a party to go to for him tomorrow. _That's _yours."

Marilyn started tearing through the paper as Alice and Jasper said their goodbyes to Clara, and then quickly to John and Tommy. As they wandered out of the kitchen, they both heard Marilyn's squeal of delight at whatever she had opened, and Alice smiled, skipping lightly to the door with Jasper in tow.

"I wonder what she'll say when she gets the rest of our present," Alice mused as they quietly walked back to their apartment.

Jasper shrugged, more relaxed now that the humans' scent wasn't as overpowering. "I'm sure we'll be able to hear her. We're right next door," he said as he unlocked the front door.

"Do you want to go hunting now? I know that sometimes it helps after being in a large crowd."

Jasper hesitated. On the one hand, his throat _was _bothering him, but on the other hand, the fear that Alice might see him as weak was prominent in his thoughts.

"Alright," he agreed, reminding himself as he had before and probably would for a long time to come, that she wouldn't see that as weakness.

Alice touched his arm lightly and nodded, silently saying to him that it wasn't a weakness, 'saying' it in that way of hers, as if she could read minds. But of course, from what she said at least, that would've been Edward. "How hard was it today?" she asked him quietly.

Jasper thought about that for a moment. "Excruciating," he finally told her honestly.

"But you didn't bite anyone," Alice pointed out.

"Yeah," Jasper said, laughing and scoffing at the same time, if that was possible, "I didn't bite anyone, that's always a plus."

"No I mean it," Alice insisted. "Everyday that you don't have a humans' blood, the stronger you become. You may not think so, but it's true."

Jasper stayed silent. Alice may have believed that, but he wasn't so sure. Albeit, he hadn't abstained for very long, but he still felt the same burning desire for humans' blood that he felt when he first walked into the diner more than a year ago. "Okay Alice," Jasper sighed, not wanting to argue the point right then.

"Come on then," Alice said, changing the topic and taking his hand, "We'll go now and hunt, and come back later." She pulled him back out the door and down to the lobby, happy but calm.

They hunted quickly, not needing much because they had already gone earlier that day. By the time they came back though, most people had already left Marilyn's birthday party.

"Do you think it's over?" Alice asked Jasper as they entered their apartment for the second time that day.

"More than likely. Why?"

"Well I was thinking we could go over one more time to see how Marilyn liked her present. But only if you're up to it."

Jasper shrugged, not really minding. "Let's just wait a little while, we'll go when we're sure nobody else is there, okay?"

"Great." Alice agreed, looking fleetingly at the door before going farther into the apartment.

Eventually, they both ended up on the couch, where Alice was sitting as she ran her fingers through Jasper's hair and he laid his head in her lap. She smiled softly and brushed a few stray pieces out of his eyes and Jasper sighed in contentment. "The emotional climate is...preferable right now. Your happiness and Marilyn's giddiness, which I can feel even over here, it's wonderful," he sighed again, "As if pain doesn't—_can't_ exist."

Alice smiled softly, happy that Jasper was content. They stayed like that for a little while longer before Jasper grudgingly pulled himself up and looked at Alice once more, running his fingertips across her cheek. "Do you still want to go visit them?"

Alice nodded, and Jasper smiled softly. He had known the answer before the question had ever been asked, but he still enjoyed the way her eyes would light up. He knew that even more than fashion, or shopping, or any of her other hobbies, Alice loved to make others happy.

"Alright, let's go then," he agreed, pulling himself up off the couch and offering her his hand. Alice took it delicately, and Jasper led her to the door. Hesitating only fractionally, Jasper inhaled one more time before he ceased breathing and stepped out of the apartment with Alice into the hallway that was still suffocatingly full of all the humans' mingling scents.

Alice skipped forward and knocked on Clara's door swiftly, her eyes glazing over briefly before she smiled mysteriously. The door swung open, and Jasper suddenly found a soft, warm, _small _body colliding with his own.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you, _thank you!" _Marilyn squealed, letting go of Jasper to smile at him before turning and giving Alice a hug, too.

Jasper smiled softly and Alice laughed at Marilyn's happy reaction, though Jasper knew that she had already seen it happen. "I see you liked your present," Alice teased the little girl lightly.

Marilyn nodded in excitement and grabbed Alice's hand to lead her into the apartment, motioning for Jasper to follow. "I named her Missy," Marilyn explained to them as she led Alice and Jasper into the living room, where the crib, with the doll inside, was standing in the center.

"Missy?" Alice asked, glancing to where the doll was lying, as if the toy was vastly interesting. "That's a pretty name."

Marilyn nodded in agreement and picked her toy up out of the small crib, cradling the doll to her chest like it was a real child. "Doesn't she look like a Missy?"

Alice nodded seriously, but Jasper felt her amusement. "She does. Don't you agree, Jasper?"

Jasper glanced from Alice to Marilyn, nodding. "Oh, uh, yeah, she does," he agreed, not quite sure what to say.

Clara came in from the kitchen, hearing Alice and Jasper in the living room. She was wiping her hands on a cloth towel, her hair pulled back in a small bun as a few strands fell out. "Hi," she greeted them, pushing a lock of hair back and out of her face. "I see you two came back."

Alice smiled and stood up from where she had been crouching next to the cradle and walked over to Clara while Jasper stayed back with Marilyn, watching quietly as she played with her dolly. "I told you we would," she reminded Clara. "We just wanted to see how Marilyn like the rest of her present."

"I love it!" Marilyn cried from where she was sitting on the floor, still holding the doll as she listened to Clara and Alice. She quickly grew bored of their conversation, though, and somehow managed to get Jasper to play with her and 'Missy.'

Clara and Alice laughed, while Jasper just smiled, looking down at the child with adoration.

"So what have you been up to lately? we haven't really gotten time to talk lately, what with planning the party, and having all the guests here."

Alice flashed her a grin easily. "Oh, nothing really. What about you?"

"John and I took Marilyn and Tommy to a carnival on Saturday. There's one up in Virginia now, did you know that?"

Alice shook her head, and Jasper just looked up briefly before going back to getting his hair braided, the doll lay forgotten as Marilyn pulled and tugged at his curly hair.

Alice giggled and the two women watched quietly as Marilyn continued to work on Jasper's hair. When she was finally done, Jasper reached to tug the hair tie out of his hair, only to have Marilyn demand that he not take it out.

Laughing full out now, Alice took Jasper's hand and helped him stand up before turning to look at Marilyn, who was smiling innocently at her. "I think we need to go now, sweetheart, but don't worry, I'll make sure he doesn't take his braid out."

Marilyn smiled and nodded, turning now to look at her mother. "Mommy, can I stay up late tonight?"

Clara's eyes danced as she walked Alice and Jasper to the door. "Of course you can honey," she told the girl, turning to whisper to Alice and Jasper, "She'll be out ten minutes past her bedtime."

Alice laughed quietly as Clara opened the door for them. "I'll see you guys soon, alright?"

"Definitely," Alice agreed, as she and Jasper stepped out into the hallway.

As soon as the door was closed, Jasper ripped the hair tie out, running his fingers through his hair to get the plait undone.

"Last time I get _my _hair braided," he told Alice as they entered their own apartment.

"Yeah," Alice agreed solemnly, "the braid just wasn't working for you."

Jasper growled playfully and scooped her up, carrying Alice to their bedroom bridal style, firmly dumping her on the bed and closing the door behind him.

****

_Okay, who else noticed the dominant theme of children in the past few chapters? Yeah, that _might _have something to do with the fact that I've been working on another AlicexJasper fic where Jasper has a daughter...I've been thinking about posting it when I finish up this story. So, thanks for waiting, and if you spot any errors in the story, just let me know. I edited it, but I doubt I caught everything._

_This chapter is dedicated to John Cullen, I hope you like this chapter, and thanks for all the reviews! And to everybody else that reviewed, you guys are wonderful, too._

_Have a nice rest of the week, reviews are much appreciated!_


	20. The Locket

Alice laughed as she danced to the front door, simultaneously pulling on her long black coat and turning to watch Jasper as he trailed after her. "Ready?" she asked in excitement, the laugh still in her voice.

"Where exactly are we going?" Jasper asked wryly, watching her as she wrapped a scarf around her neck and handed him his jacket.

"You'll know soon enough, now come on, it's cold out for humans, and you need to put a coat on."

Jasper shook his head in amusement and took the coat from her, slipping it on and rolling his eyes. Only Alice could get him to go out with no idea where he was even headed.

They headed down to the lobby, and then quickly out the door.

A few kids were running around in the empty street, playing some sort of game, while others ran down the sidewalk, screeching with laughter. All of them were bundled up warmly, most likely because it would be cool out to a human. Jasper felt a strong gust of wind, mercifully blowing all of the kids' scents the other way. Alice buttoned her coat up one more time, despite the fact that she wasn't actually cold. The fallen leaves crackled underneath Jasper's feet as he and Alice walked down the street, and Jasper looked at all the trees surrounding them as they walked.

Most of the trees were bare, with only a few leaves still attached. Below all the trees, and even in the wind, though, the red, and golden, and brown leaves fluttered quietly. A teenager down a couple of blocks was raking leaves in front of a store, the sound of the teeth scraping against the cement assaulting his ears.

They turned down another street, though, one that was less crowded as they walked along. The two of them were silent as they continued along the sidewalk. Alice glanced up and down the street swiftly, even though it was empty, before she started to cross, gesturing for Jasper to follow. "Will you tell me where we're going _now?" _Jasper asked in exasperation.

Alice laughed again, shaking her head. "Nope," she chirped_, _"because we're already here."

Jasper looked up, only to see the old park. The ancient slide was probably the oldest thing there, and none of the kids ever went on it anymore. In fact, kids never came to this park at all anymore, ever since they had built another playground just across from their apartment and down the street. The only thing that was usable now was the more modern play place off to the side, and the swings.

That was where Alice led him carefully as they moved through the park. She pulled him past the ancient slide, and the merry-go-round thing that Jasper never knew what it was called.

"Halloween is in a week," Alice told him conversationally as she sat down on one of the two swings, pushing herself back and forth slightly. Jasper watched off to the side as she started to pump herself higher and higher, her happiness almost in time with the swing.

She still wasn't going that high, though, so Jasper moved quietly to stand behind her, gently pushing on her back whenever she came near, launching her higher and higher into the air. "Higher," she called to him, laughing in child-like wonder as her hair whipped against her face, and her scarf flew up and then down with her in the wind.

"Are you sure?" Jasper asked

"Positive," she laughed back. With shrug, Jasper pushed again with a little more force, smiling when she shrieked with laughter.

This was the Alice he loved to watch. The Alice that was enjoying her childhood now, in place of all her forgotten memories of her own human life. The Alice that took joy in the simplest of things. He pushed one more time and then stepped back to watch Alice as she swung back and forth, a brilliant smile on her face.

She got a mischievous look in her eye, and, glancing briefly at Jasper, who was now standing in front of her, suddenly launched herself off the swing as it reached its peak, throwing herself into his arms while Jasper just watched in surprise.

Alice pressed her lips against his throat, smiling. "Gotcha," she whispered.

Jasper laughed and set Alice down on the ground, brushing back a piece of hair softly. "So you did. Are you ready? Or do you want to try to slide now?" he asked teasingly, smiling.

Alice grinned widely up at him and giggled. "No, I think I'm good. Let's just wander around town though, okay?"

Nodding, Jasper smiled crookedly at her. "Okay," he agreed.

Alice grabbed Jasper's hand and pulled him to the sidewalk again, glancing up and down the street. Half the stores were closed and boarded up, and a few others were simply closed. Only a couple were open, including a pawn shop that she felt a strange pull toward. Looking up at Jasper, she noticed he was staring at it, too. "Would you like to go in?"

Jasper glanced down at her, then back at the pawn shop. "Will it be alright, do you think?"

"I'm sure it will be," Alice told him nodding.

Jasper smiled nervously but nodded, and Alice led them across the street. She opened the door, and it chimed quietly. The guy behind the counter looked up briefly before going back to the book he was reading. Alice looked around, ignoring him, pursing her lips. There wasn't much here that would normally attract her attention, so why would she feel such a pull?

Jasper was moving toward the counter, and at first, Alice thought it was because of the human, but then she realized he was looking down at the display. "Can I see that?" he asked in a whisper with the last of the air in his lungs, pointing at an oval locket.

The kid pulled it out and handed the necklace to Jasper in a bored manner.

Jasper turned away from where Alice had come up behind him, and she heard the soft 'click' as he unlatched it to look inside.

"It's hardly worth anything," the guy explained, "Ten dollars."

Alice looked at him incredulously. "That's sure expensive for something that's supposedly worth hardly anything."

He just shrugged. "Some lady came in like six months ago with it. Family heirloom or something."

Alice turned back to Jasper, but he was still angled away from her. She heard a soft intake of breath as he started to walk to the door, blatantly ignoring the fact that he had yet to pay for it.

The guy seemed about to remind him of that when Alice pulled a ten out of her purse and pushed it onto the counter before hurrying outside after Jasper. He was silently standing right outside the door, his shoulders stiff as he leaned over the necklace.

"Jasper?" Alice reached out to lightly touch his shoulder, barely brushing his jacket, but Jasper twisted around and dropped into a crouch, his teeth bared as he watched her warily with cool, steely eyes. Alice took a step back, for the first time nervous around him.

He suddenly gasped as he realized who it was, and the locket slipped out of his grip as he straightened out of the crouch. He glanced at Alice with a pained look in his eyes before turning and running into the woods beyond the playground they had just been at.

Alice didn't hesitate after that. She grabbed the necklace off the ground and clutched it to her chest as she ran after him, trying to catch up with her husband. Alice followed his scent until she finally found him, turned away from her yet again as he slammed his fist against the tree.

"That was my mother's," he told her blankly.

Alice gasped quietly. "You mean?"

"Family heirloom? _Whitlock _family heirloom. There was a picture of my sister and I."

"Oh Jasper," she sighed softly, reaching out to touch him.

Jasper pulled away from her violently and twisted around to look at Alice. "My own _mother, _Alice! I mean—I always...knew, she was," Jasper hesitated before he finally whispered the word, "dead. But to have proof of it, because she never would have let that thing leave her sight willingly."

"Jasper, I'm sorry..."

"Don't."

Alice looked up at Jasper in shock from where she had just been staring at the ground. "What?"

"Just...don't. Don't try to understand, Alice, because you don't. _Please._ You don't even _know _who your family is, so just...don't."

She wanted to be mad at him, for bringing something like that up, but seeing him so upset, so _broken, _well, it broke her heart too. And she wanted to comfort him, because he was so broken, but that wasn't what he wanted—or needed—right now.

Finally Alice just sighed as Jasper looked away again. "I'm going to go back to the apartment," she whispered softly. "You just...come home when you're ready." She sighed one more time before softly setting the locket on the ground next to him and turning away.

She walked slowly, silently hoping that maybe he would call out for her to stay with him, but she knew even without her visions that that wasn't what was going to happen. Not yet. Right now he needed to be alone.

Instead, she listened as he crouched next to the locket and gingerly picked it up, clenching his hand into a fist.

As she walked out of the trees and cut across the abandoned playground, Alice glanced back one more time, knowing she wouldn't see anything anymore, before turning and making her way home. Without once looking into the future, Alice knew he would be home. Maybe not for the next few hours, or even the next few days if it was really bad, but he _would _come home.

Her heels clicked against the sidewalk, and she tried to focus on that instead of the way her heart ached to be back in the forest to ease away any pain Jasper was feeling.

Some of the kids were still out playing, but the majority had already headed inside for a warmer temperature. Alice glanced around before she ducked into the apartment building, sighing softly. He would be back soon, she tried to convince herself. Too bad it wasn't really working. Still, she dutifully headed up to their room and unlocked the door with a soft 'click,' hanging up her ratty scarf and slipping out of her coat, not even bothering to remember how just the other day she had been complaining about how old the scarf had been getting.

She slipped off her shoes and then moved back into their bedroom, grabbing one of her books off the dresser and going back out into the living room. She settled down onto the couch and opened the book to where she had last left off, but couldn't focus on the printed words right in front of her face.

Every few minutes, she would glance up at the clock eagerly, only to be disappointed when it had only been a minute or two. Unconsciously, Alice started drumming her fingers against the cover of the book in impatience, only to realize what she was doing and stop.

Alice glared at the book, trying to will herself to actually read it. So far, it hadn't been working.

Eventually, Alice ended up staring blankly past her book as her thoughts flew around in her head hectically. Suddenly, she _saw _him coming home, but she still had another thirty minutes or so. Alice glanced up at the clock in anticipation, realizing with slight shock that it had beens hours since she had last checked.

Now extremely comforted by the fact that he would be returning soon, Alice finally turned to her book, able to read its words now. So immersed in the book though, she didn't hear the sound of him returning until she heard the quiet sound of the door as he stepped into the room. She looked up, quickly forsaking _Through The Looking Glass _to see Jasper's welcome face.

"I shouldn't have snapped at you, Ali," Jasper said softly as he came closer to her. "I was just...overwhelmed."

Jasper grabbed her hand absently, and Alice rubbed soothing circles into his hand. "It was your mother's," she stated simply.

Jasper nodded. "It just...reminded me of my past. I wasn't prepared for it. My sister, my mother...I mean, I always knew they were dead by now, but to have actual proof?" he paused and looked down at their intertwined hands before he continued.

"She never took that locket off, and Bethy would have taken it after her," Jasper laughed quietly, staring off into space. "We saved for months to buy her that locket, and put a picture of Bethy in it, too. They added one of myself after I had...left them."

Alice watched him, hesitating before she asked softly, "May I see it?"

Jasper pulled the locket out of his coat pocket and handed it to her.

Alice glanced fleetingly at Jasper before she opened it, gasping quietly. On the left, there was a picture of Jasper, maybe one or two years younger, staring at the camera solemnly in his confederate uniform prim and proper, clean cut.

"I had just been promoted to Major," he whispered. Alice glanced at Jasper, and then back to the locket.

In the other picture, a girl was laughing in her picture, even though she obviously shouldn't have been. She had pigtails that, though it was black and white, Alice could tell would have been the same honey blonde as Jasper's hair was. She was wearing a bonnet, which was sliding off her head to the side, and she looked maybe seven or eight.

Alice didn't realize Jasper had come to stand behind her until he reached over to touch the picture of the little girl.

"Was that your little sister?" Alice asked.

Jasper nodded, his eyes closed. "That was my baby sister," he confirmed. "Bethy. She was seven when we got that picture taken. Ten when I left. She had the greenest eyes you had ever seen, like me. Everybody said if not for such a large age gap, we could've been twins."

"Green eyes?" Alice asked.

Jasper nodded, turning to stare out the window blankly again. Alice stood up and wrapped him in her arms, though she barely even reached his chest.

"I wish I could say I understand," she told him, "but I don't. I've never had to deal with this, and I probably never will. I can't even remember me family."

Now it was Jasper's turn to wrap his arms around her in comfort. "I don't think I'd be able to do that," he told her, kissing the top of her head. "to...exist without knowing where I came from, even with a past I'd sometimes rather forget, it's better than not knowing my roots. My family. But you? You live everyday without any of that."

Alice laughed shakily, and Jasper pulled away to raise an eyebrow at her. Alice shook her head. "It's nothing. It's just funny, somehow you ended up comforting _me _today."

Jasper smiled at her, chuckling. "Yes, I suppose you're right. How did that ever happen?"

Alice smiled brilliantly up at him then, knowing what he was about to do. Jasper leaned down to press his lips against her cheek, only to have Alice turn her head at the last moment, pressing her lips against his.

Jasper chuckled against her lips, the edges of his mouth pulled upwards in a smile. He pulled himself away, opting instead to slide his lips down her neck, kiss by kiss. "Thank you," he murmured, his breath tickling her skin.

Alice smiled and pulled away, running a hand through his hair once. Jasper smiled, knowing that all had been forgiven again. To anyone else, it would've looked like she had just pulled away so he would stop, but Jasper felt her content and forgiving emotions and just smiled, brushing her cheek with his fingertips once before standing up.

"So what do you want for dinner?" he asked suddenly, grinning at her.

Alice burst out laughing as he pretended to go into the kitchen before coming back out. "Hm...I think mountain lion sounds good tonight? How about you, what's on the menu?" she joked, grinning just as widely as Jasper now was.

"I think I'm going to bag me some bear."

Alice just continued smiling, until she abruptly realized that she still had the locket in her hands. Jasper noticed it to, and came up in front of her, curling his hands around her much smaller ones. Slowly, he pulled himself away and took the locket with him before walking around behind her and slowly putting it on around her neck.

"I would be quite honored if you were to wear this, Mrs. Whitlock," he told her, hooking the chain, and Alice turned around to face him, touching the locket gingerly.

"Thank you."

Jasper just touched the locket once more before smiling at her. "You're welcome, darlin'."

Alice laughed quietly, grabbing his hand tightly in her own and leading him to the door. "Come on, cowboy, let's go get our dinner," she teased happily.

Jasper just smiled, following her obediently out the door.

****

_It was meant to be fluff the entire chapter, I swear it was...but then...well, this happened. And sorry about the long, long, _long, _wait, I kind of just...lost all inspiration. And I'm sad to say that I don't know how quickly the next few chapters will be out, either, but I do plan on finishing it, so that will happen. In case you haven't noticed, too, the story is starting to near the end. I've got maybe three or four more chapters, and then an epilogue. Then it will be over. I'm a bit sad to see it go, I'll admit._

_insanityisFUN!!!: Well, first off, your review wasn't offensive, I just felt like I should address this, but I couldn't reply personally since it was anonymous. Anyway, don't worry, I know that southerners don't say y'all that much, I was just kind of having some fun with it. And J & A were just having some fun and messing around, so that's why I exaggerated it so much. _: )

_Hope you guys enjoyed it!_


	21. Snow Time

_Warning: Major Fluff Alert : )_

_****_

Jasper stared down at the empty carcass in front of him with a slight grimace. He and Alice had come hunting since they hadn't gone in a few days, and this was his second animal.

"Jasper!" Jasper looked up to see Alice waving him over to where she stood a few feet away. Closing the distance between them, Jasper looked at Alice curiously.

"Yes?"

Alice grinned broadly like a child. "Let's make a snowman!"

Jasper gave her an odd look. "Snowman? How do we make a snowman?"

Alice pretended to gasp and gave Jasper and incredulous look. "You don't know how to make a snowman? Really?"

Jasper nodded calmly. "Haven't we already talked about this? Texan here," he half-joked.

Laughing, Alice gestured for him to follow her. "Well then, I guess you're going to get to make your very first snowman. Come on, I want..._clean, white, _snow, not red."

Jasper gave her a half-smile, and Alice just rolled her eyes, leading him to a small clearing. "So how do we make snowmen?" he asked her.

Alice grinned. "Okay, first we're going to make a ball out of snow, just...roll it, I guess." Jasper gave her a strange look but did as he was told, first making a snowball and then running it through the snow until it was larger. It was more an oval than a sphere, but Alice nodded at it in approval. "Great. Now we need to do that again, only smaller so we can put it on top of that one."

Shrugging, Jasper did as told and repeated the process. Alice started bouncing in excitement for their snowman, and Jasper looked over at her, pressing too hard on the snow. The big snowball broke under the pressure, and Jasper growled at it in frustration.

"That's alright," Alice reassured him, "we can just redo it."

"So why are we making a snowman?" he asked as he rolled a new snowball.

Alice scoffed as if it was obvious. "Jasper, we _have _to make a snowman! It's practically a requirement for the snow!"

Jasper rolled his eyes but continued making the snowman, since it seemed to make her so happy.

"Okay that's good!" Alice called to him after a moment or two. "Now...you need to, uh, put it on top of the other one."

Jasper gave a half-laugh, half-sigh and picked up the ball of snow, carefully setting it on top of the other one.

"Great, we just need one more for the head! I'll make this one!"

Jasper sat back and watched Alice as she enthusiastically rolled the snow into a head for their snowman. She gleefully set it on top of the other two and then turned to Jasper. "I have a bag lying around somewhere around here," she told him vaguely. "Would you mind going to get it for me?"

He raised an eyebrow. "You brough a bag while we hunted?"

Alice shrugged, "Well actually I got it after I hunted and then came back, but yeah, basically."

Jasper laughed quietly and went to find the bag for her, sighing in exasperation. That sounded just like Alice. He found the bag rather quickly and headed back to where Alice was waiting for him, not bothering to look in the bag. She would show him when he got back.

As soon as he was close, Alice ran quickly over to him and took the bag out of his hands in excitement.

"So what do you have in the bag?" he asked her warily.

Alice grinned and pulled...a carrot out?

"Why do you have a carrot in your bag, Alice?"

"Why, to give him a nose, silly," she told Jasper, skipping back over to their snowman to give him a nose. "I also brought some stones that I found, and a cowboy hat. Don't worry," she said, seeing the alarmed look he gave her, "it's not yours. Can you get me some branches that look like arms from off a tree?"

Jasper sighed but agreed. It was no use trying to fight Alice once she got going. As Alice continued to decorate the snowman, Jasper wandered through the trees, trying to find anything that looked remotely like arms.

After wandering through the forest for maybe five minutes, Jasper just gave up and broke off two branches on a nearby tree to take back to Alice. When he went back to her, Alice appraised the branches befre taking them out of his hands. "These will work, I guess. We're making a cowboy snowman."

Jasper laughed and glanced over to their snowman. The stones were placed in a semicircle for the mouth, and two more above the carrot nose for eyes, with a cheap cowboy hat placed on top of its head. Alice ran over and stuck the branches in its side and then grabbed her bag, rummaging through it until she pulled out their camera.

Jasper gave her an incredulous look. "You brought the camera?"

"I had a feeling we would want it. Or at least, _I _would want it. Now go on and pose with the snowman." Jasper laughed, but it went over goodnaturedly and pretended to sling an arm around the snowman. "Say cheese," Alice called to him.

Jasper laughed, and Alice quickly snapped a shot. "Great! Now you come take a picture of me."

Jasper smiled and came over to her, taking the camera out of her hands and holding it up. "Alright, now you can pose with our wonderful snowman."

Alice danced over to the snowman and quickly leaned over to give the snowman a peck on the cheek, looking at Jasper as she did so. Jasper laughed and took the picture of her. Alice grinned and came back over to him again, grabbing the bag up and putting the camera away in it.

"You know, I rather like our snowman." she told him

"I would hope so, it probably took us an hour to make." Jasper lamented.

"Thrity minutes," Alice challenged.

"No!" Out of the corner of his eye, Jasper watched Alice inch away from him, but he shrugged it off and went to fix the hat on their snowman, which was starting to fall off.

_Thwack!_

His head shot up from where he had been fixing the hat, before he turned around to look at Alice suspiciously, who was facing the other way, attempting to whistle and failing miserably as she fell over into the snow laughing. Jasper touched his back lightly and felt the snow where she had pelted him with a snowball. Pretending to glare at Alice, Jasper carefully bent down to scoop up a handful of snow, rolling it into a snowball.

Alice gasped suddenly, and Jasper knew she had just _seen _what he was going to do.

Acting quickly, Jasper launched the snowball at her, grinning broadly as it hit its intended mark. Alice's mouth fell open as she stared at him in shock. "You didn't..." she trailed off.

Jasper grinned broadly, clasping his hands behind his back. "I did."

"You really shouldn't have done that," she warned him. Quick as a flash, Alice made another snowball and threw it at him before turning and running away from Jasper, laughing as he tossed another snowball at her only to miss.

She dodged around a tree and scooped up more snow. Glancing around the trunk quickly, she tossed the snowball at him, hitting Jasper in the face.

"I'm going to get you, Alice!" Jasper growled out to her only half playing now.

Alice giggled and turned lithely to run farther into the forest.

Keeping her mind open to visions of Jasper, Alice hid behind a huge tree and began to make snowball after snowball.

It had just snowed again last night, creating yet another layer of snow. She sunk a couple inches, but otherwise stayed stable as she crouched in the snow.

She saw him creeping up behind her in a vision, but before she could fully pull out again, she felt the barrage of snowballs hitting her. Alice shrieked and turned to throw all her snowballs at Jasper now.

Jasper threw his arms up in defense and turned partially away from Alice as she tossed snowballs at him. Alice used this as a distraction and ran out and away from the tree.

"That wasn't fair!" Alice called to Jasper, "Using my visions against me!" Alice started to run away from him, turning slightly to see him facing her again, laughing openly at her.

"Did you see me sneaking up on you?" Alice stayed silent. "Well there you go," Jasper said, laughing again.

He threw a snowball at her, but Alice dodged behind another tree.

Alice carefully packed a snowball tight and spun around the tree...only to find that Jasper wasn't there anymore.

She spun back around in shock to find Jasper standing behind her now. He wrapped his arms around her and smiled down at Alice

"Hey," he whispered.

Alice grinned up at him, carefully keeping the snowball in her grasp behind her back. "Hi," she greeted back unnecessarily.

"I got you. Told you I would, too."

Alice nodded in silent agreement.

"Why are you suddenly feeling mischievous?" Jasper asked suspiciously.

Alice just smiled up at him innocently. Slowly, she reached up and jammed the snow down his shirt, smirking triumphantly. Even wearing a sweater, the snow would take a little while to melt because of how cold his body was. "Looks like _I _got _you," _she told him happily.

Jasper looked at her stoically before slowly bending down to the ground to grab a handful of snow.

"Oh no," she warned him off, trying to back up only to collide with the tree. "No, no, no, no, no," she had a feeling she knew where that snow was going.

Alice saw what he was planning on doing seconds before he did.

"No!" she shrieked as Jasper mashed the snow into her hair, where it then dripped down her neck. As he pulled back, Alice ran her hands through her hair, putting it all on end. She shook her hair out like a dog to get the majority of the snow out, but some still stayed in.

Alice glared at him for a few seconds before sighing and giving up. She held her hands up in surrender. "I give," she told him, "truce?"

Jasper pretended to think about it for a moment. "Alright," he finally agreed before scooping her up in his arms bridal style, effectively ending their snowball fight.

"I'll kiss you," Jasper declared, "even covered in snow." He kissed her lightly on the lips, and Alice smiled slightly.

"And I'll kiss _you _even with blood on your lips," Alice proceeded to do as promised, kissing him back before pulling away slightly. "No," she decided, "_Especially _then."

Jasper smiled softly at her before setting Alice back down carefully. He opened his mouth to tell her something, but Alice cut him off.

"Love you too, Jazz," she told him, taking his hand in her own. He wrapped his fingers around her entire hand, so much smaller than her own.

Jasper opted then to instead just wrap his arm around her shoulders and pull her closer, smiling. "Glad to know it, Ali," he murmured.

They went back to grab the bag with their camera before they started to head back home slowly, oblivious to the rest of the world.

As they finally reached town again, they both ignored all of the premature Christmas decorations, and even the occasional Thanksgiving decoration that was still out, silently enjoying each other instead.

The walk up the stairs was slow, and they finally released one another and were simply holding hands instead. Once they were back in the apartment, Jasper stopped Alice in the living room and turned around to face her, formally taking a silent bow.

"What say you to a night of dancing, just the two of us? You'll put on that pretty little red number you just bought, and I'll wear my tux and supply the music."

Alice smiled brilliantly at Jasper, her emotions giving way how excited she was. "Where?" was all she asked.

Jasper smiled and pointed up. "The roof," he said by way of explanation.

Alice smiled again. "I'll see you up there then, soldier."

He grinned and pretended to touch the brim of an imaginary hat. "Much obliged, ma'am," he murmured to her in his southern drawl.

And Alice turned to go into their bedroom to get ready.

She sifted through her closet, trying to find the red dress Jasper was talking about. Finally finding it, Alice gave a cry of, "Ah-hah!" and pulled it out happily to lay on the bed.

Turning back to the closet, she fished around on the floor until she found the silver heels that she was looking for, and pulled those out to. She just needed to bathe to get the snow out of her hair and any dirt that she had happened to get on her, and then do her hair and make-up.

It would take maybe a couple hours.

****

Alice made her way up the stairwell to where Jasper was already waiting on the roof. She had done her hair (though there wasn't much to be done) and fixed her make-up, and had gotten all dressed up.

It was a full moon tonight, but that didn't make much of a difference since it would be cloudy either way.

Almost silently, Alice got to the top and pushed open the door to the scene that laid before her peacefully.

She skipped outside and spun around like a child as the snow came down on her quietly, while her high heels clicked against the ground.

It was snowing again, but of course that didn't mean much to a vampire.

She heard the click of a lock and stopped her spinning to see Jasper standing there, beautiful as ever.

"So nobody will disturb us," he explained quietly.

Alice nodded, still slightly shocked at everything he had done for her.

Music played softly in the background, and Jasper stepped closer to her, taking a hand and spinning her around slowly. Alice just watched him silently as he spun her again just as slowly.

"May I have this dance?" he asked her quietly.

Alice nodded and Jasper proceeded to pull her closer and into a slow dance.

They danced slowly at first, but as a more upbeat song came on, they switched to a quicker dance smoothly. Alice's heels clacked away happily as she and Jasper completed the different intricate dance moves.

Snow swiled around them quietly as they danced away in their own winter wonderland, not paying attention to anything besides each other.

An 'I love you' wasn't necessary. Not for them. Jasper could feel her emotions just as well as his own, and Alice could see the love in his eyes plain as day.

A familiar melody came on, and Alice looked up at Jasper from where her head had been resting against his chest. "It's our song," she whispered.

"Yes," he agreed softly, "It is." And he whirled her into another loving dance.

****

*Edit I wanted to get this out a while ago, but for some reason wouldn't let me. Grr.

_W-O-W! 400 reviews! That totally got me inspired to write again! I'm back! Ahem. Sorry for the exclamation points, hehe. You guys are all amazing, I just love all your reviews._

_So, I have been planning fluff for, well, a long time, and every time I started to write it, the scene would change, or suddenly everything would get all dramatic, so I give you...the fluff chapter. It's almost completely fluff. I think it might've been the cotton candy I ate at our school carnival Thursday (kidding!) Sorry for the shortness._

_Thanks for all the reviews, you guys are the best! Oh, and happy Pi Day (I have to memorize Pi as far as I can for my math class. I've got it memorized like 20 digits or something. 3.14159265359897932384626...I think. I'm such a nerd)_

_Feedback is much appreciated! Jasper plushies (or any other Twilight character) to all my reviewers!_


	22. New Year's

"So..._why _are we doing this again?" Jasper asked Alice curiously as he ran a hand through his hair. Glancing down at his hand absentmindedly, he noticed some white powder on his hands. "Huh," he observed.

Alice glanced over at Jasper from where she was mixing something in a large bowl that she clutched to her chest. She glanced at his hand with the residue on it and then back up at his face before finally going back to whatever it was she was stirring. "Still have some flour in your hair?" she asked nonchalantly.

"Yeah," Jasper answered, running his hand through his hair again to find more flour. "I thought I already got it all out."

Alice grinned. "That's what you get for throwing flour at me," she told him in a sing-song voice.

Jasper rolled his eyes and shook his hair out, his body angled towards her. Alice leaned away, laughing. "Hey, no fair!"

"All's fair in love and war," Jasper reminded her.

Alice grinned again before she glanced down at the batter, the smile fading. Looking at Jasper, she laughed a bit nervously. "Uh...you know what, maybe we should just buy something for the party instead of trying to make it."

"Why what did you do?" he accused playfully.

"Nothing!" Alice gasped, appalled. "I am _shocked _that you would ever think that!" Jasper gave her a look, and Alice sighed. "Oh alright, I kind of...well, look," She held the bowl upside down over the sink, and the batter ran out as if it was water. "I kind of stirred it a _little _too much."

Jasper looked at Alice in amazement before he shook his head. "Why are we even making food for this party, it's not like we're going to be eating anything."

"Because Clara invited us to a party, and we should be nice and bring something for the humans to eat. But uh...we should probably just buy something for the party." Jasper laughed and Alice grinned back at him before setting the bowl in the sink. "Yeah, we should definitely buy something. How about brownies?"

Jasper wrinkled his nose, and Alice laughed again. "Yeah, they don't sound very appetizing to me, either."

"Alice," Jasper began, suddenly nervous. Alice fidgeted slightly from his nerves before she felt a wave of calm. "Sorry. Do you think I'll be able to handle going to a party like this? All the humans? I mean, I know I made it through Marilyn's birthday, but I don't know if I can do it again."

That was all he was worried about? "Don't worry," Alice murmured as she placed a hand on his shoulder. "You'll do wonderfully. And if it gets too bad, then I'll be there to help you. Promise." She smiled dazzlingly, and Jasper sighed but nodded. Alice stopped moving suddenly and her eyes glazed over, and Jasper watched her carefully before the vision ended and her smiled widened.

"It's going to snow again!" she chirped happily, skipping out into the living room to peek out the blinds. She kept them carefully in front of her body until she saw that no one was there.

Alice grinned and threw back the curtains, and the sun glinted off her skin. Jasper watched Alice as she smiled and giggled as the snow began to fall. The sun hit both of them, and Alice turned around to look at Jasper as his skin glittered brightly.

"Are you ready for the new year yet?" she asked him.

Jasper shrugged. "I guess. Can you believe that we've been together for almost two years?"

Alice smiled and closed the curtains before turning and going back over to Jasper to wrap her arms around him. "No," she whispered, "can you?"

Jasper kissed the top of her head. "It seems like it went by fast." Alice nodded in agreement. "Oh, have you seen the Cullens lately?" he suddenly asked her.

Alice sighed and shook her head, pulling away from Jasper to look up at his face. "No. Not for a few months now. I'm really worried."

"Well, there's not much that we can do about it now, so don't you worry your pretty little head about it. I'm sure you'll get a vision of them soon enough, okay darling?" He calmed her down slightly before smiling.

Alice suddenly grinned widely at him. "So about those brownies..."

****

"I'm so glad you guys could make it!" Clara cried as she opened the door for Alice and Jasper. "And you brought brownies! Yum! Come on in you guys," she opened the door wider and stepped to the side to let them in.

Jasper nodded at her tensely, while Alice smiled brightly at her and danced inside. "We bought them," she told Clara sheepishly, "I guess we just aren't that good at baking anything."

Clara smiled. "That's fine, just go ahead and put them in the kitchen, that's where everybody else has left the food. Most everyone is in the living room now, if you want to go see them."

Alice nodded and tugged on Jasper's hand, leading him into the kitchen. The smell of all the different foods assaulted her senses, and she let go of Jasper's hand carefully. All the different smells would distract him from the humans somewhat, and she trusted him.

Jasper looked at Alice warily, but nodded slightly. If Marilyn's party had been hard, this would be excruciating, but he would do it. For Alice. It didn't matter that there was more humans here than he had ever been in company with before, or the fact that they would be staying for a few hours.

He would do it for Alice.

His resolve strengthened, and Alice smiled as she watched the future firm up with his resolve. No blood would be spilt here tonight. She was sure of that.

Alice set the plate of brownies down on the table and then took Jasper's hand again. "You can do this," she told him.

Jasper nodded, and Alice led him into the living room, where people were jammed up next to each other. People were talking and laughing, and the radio was on in the background. Alice glanced at Jasper and watched nervously as a human bumped into him. Jasper stiffened, his eyes widening fractionally.

Scenarios flew through her head faster than she could watch, only catching glimpses, and Alice wondered too late if she had made a mistake bringing Jasper here.

After tense milliseconds though, the human laughed nervously and backed away from Jasper, and they moved on without incident. Jasper wasn't breathing any more, just as he normally did around so many humans, but he turned to Alice and said with the last of his breath. "Don't worry. I can do this."

This time, it was Alice's turn to nod, and they continued through the room. With all the humans here, it was suffocating, and her throat burned, but Alice knew that she would be able to make it. She had to.

All these humans were unaware of the danger surrounding them, the chance that they would never get to see the new year.

"Alice! Jasper! Over here!" Alice turned to see John motioning for them to come over and join him.

Alice hurried over to their friend, Jasper's hand clasped in her own. "Hi John," she called when she was closer. "Where's Tommy?"

John smiled. "He's with my mother. Staying the night with grandma again. You guys staying for the entire party?"

"I don't know," Alice told him truthfully, shrugging. "Maybe. I guess it just kind of depends."

John nodded before glancing over his shoulder when his name was called. turning back to Alice and Jasper he gave a half-wave and started to make his way over to the person who had called him. "I'll talk to you guys later," he called back to them.

"Alright," Alice agreed before turning to face Jasper. She noticed how his eyes had already started to darken considerably, despite the fact that they had hunted just hours earlier. Alice looked around the room when she spotted another friend of hers. Alice took Jasper's hand again and made her way over to the woman, smiling warmly.

"Hey, how have you been?" Alice asked as soon as she was within hearing distance.

The woman smiled, and Jasper watched her disinterestedly as she waved around a cup of alcohol and continued talking to Alice.

The humans surrounding him were mingling with everybody, laughing and talking loudly before joining another conversation, and then moving back. Somebody was fiddling with the radio, and somebody else was starting some sort of game over on the other side of the room.

A few people were getting together a group to play poker in the kitchen, and others were moving in and out of the kitchen with plates of food. Jasper made a face—it smelled disgusting—and continued watching everyone silently.

If he didn't think about the blood, then it was easier for him to resist them all, but the room was getting stuffy, and the air was circulating. "I'm going to open a window," he whispered in Alice's ear, taking in a deep breath filled with her scent before stepping away from her to go open the window like he had said.

So focused on _ignoring _the people, Jasper didn't realize that Clara had come up next to him until she spoke. "How do you like the party so far?" she asked curiously. "Is it any good? I hope so, I was agonizing over it for hours."

Jasper smiled slightly. He obviously wasn't going to tell her that he couldn't enjoy it very well because he was thirsting for people's blood, so he just settled for what Alice would say. "It's really nice, Clara."

Clara beamed. "So uh, what are you doing?"

Jasper hesitated. Rude to a friend, or loosing all oxygen? Sighing internally, Jasper answered her. "Opening the window. It's getting stuffy in here."

"Oh! Why didn't I think of that?" she berated herself.

Jasper smiled slightly, but didn't say anything until he had opened it and subtly took in a deep gulp of fresh air. "Don't worry about it, Clara," Jasper reassured her once he was sure he had enough air. "So where's Marilyn?"

"Oh, she's at a friend's house, they're going to stop by later to drop her off." Jasper nodded and took in another deep breath. "So some people are starting a game over poker in the kitchen—" which he already knew, "—if you'd like to join them. Alice tells me how good you are at poker."

Jasper laughed loudly, and noticed out of the corner of his eye how Alice glanced over at him and smiled before turning back to her friend. "That's if I had anything to bet on. I'm pretty much broke right now."

Clara smiled and laughed. "I suppose that would help," she murmured. "Well, I guess I've got to go be a better host, so I'll see you later, okay Jasper?" Clara laughed one more time and then moved back into the crowd of people, mingling with everybody she had invited.

Jasper sighed and leaned against the wall next to the window, closing his eyes. It was easier to talk with Clara, but with the other humans? Maybe it would just be better if he stuck near the window. Worse came to worst, he could always _jump _out the window. Jasper cast a sidelong glance out the window.

"Don't go thinking about jumping," Alice suddenly warned him, and Jasper turned to see Alice standing there, smiling mischievously.

"How do you always know what I'm thinking?" Jasper joked.

"I'm psychic."

"Haha, that's hilarious."

Alice's smile widened. "I know, I just crack myself up," Jasper rolled his eyes but smiled nonetheless. "So how are you holding up?"

Jasper hesitated but finally shrugged, looking back at the window again. "I'll survive," he told her.

Alice smiled and stood on her tip toes to kiss his cheek. "Thanks. This means a lot to me."

"You just go and enjoy yourself, if you need me, I'll probably be somewhere near the window."

Laughing, Alice gave him one more quick kiss and a "thank you," before she wandered off into the crowd like Clara had.

Jasper finally just closed his eyes and listened to the humans as they moved from group to group.

"Hey." Jasper opened his eyes to see John standing in front of him, holding a beer in hand. "Alice run off?"

Laughing, Jasper scooted closer to the window to give John some room. Smiling, John came to stand next to him. "Hardly," Jasper explained, "she wants to stay, and I'm not big on parties."

John gave him a look and raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, I noticed." Jasper smiled slightly and turned to look out the window absently. "So what did you two do today?" John asked him eventually.

"I took Alice ice skating," Jasper told him.

"Really? How good are you?"

Jasper shrugged. "Better than last year," he admitted. John laughed, and Jasper chuckled quietly. "I took her last year on New Year's, and I was falling _everywhere _in the beginning."

"Nice," John commented. "So are you going to play poker?"

Jasper scoffed. "Thanks, but no."

John nodded in agreement. "_Oh_ yeah. So, I'm gonna go, I'll talk to you later Jasper."

Jasper gave a wave. "See you."

****

"Jasper!" Alice suddenly gasped in surprise as he caught her hands and pulled her into a dance. Everyone around them was either laughing and joking around or dancing around as music played on the radio.

"Come dance with me!" he declared, smiling widely.

He pulled her into a spin and Alice threw her head back, grinning. Jasper pulled Alice close, and then sent her back out again before they started dancing around in a circle.

They continued on, dancing with no real set moves in mind.

There was actually more jumping around than real dancing, but Alice grinned as they did a combination of the waltz, some sort of jig, and jumping like the rest of the group. Eventually the song ended, and Alice laughed happily as she wandered over to the couch and fell back onto it, while Jasper just leaned against the side.

"That was fun," Alice commented as Jasper leaned next to her, nodding his head in agreement. Other people were joining in the dancing for the new song that was playing, so the couch was empty. "Why the sudden change in...emotion, oh."

Jasper nodded. "The alcohol does it's purpose well. Their blood isn't as much of a...temptation, and it also sends their emotions sky high. As long as everybody else in the room is this happy, I will be too."

Alice grinned at him. "We should do this more often." Jasper just laughed and looked around the room at everybody else.

The song ended abruptly, and the radio announcer came back on. _"Hey everybody! It's almost the new year, we've got one minute till! Grab your drinks, grab your lover, we've got the countdown to do!"_

Somebody screamed in delight, and there was a scramble as everybody moved to the kitchen to grab a glass of champagne.

A few seconds passed, and they saw Clara pushed her way through the crowds, carrying three glasses, as she made her way over to where Alice and Jasper were watching everybody quietly.

Getting over to them, she held out two of the glasses, offering them to Alice and Jasper.

Alice laughed nervously. "No thank you, Clara,"

"Oh come on!" Clara cried in exasperation, "You can't say no to champagne on New Year's, now take it before the countdown starts."

Alice sighed in good natured way, but took one glass while Jasper took the other.

"Now come on, stand up," Clara insisted.

Alice rolled her eyes at Jasper but stood up and moved to stand next to Jasper.

By then, most people had come back out into the living room, and the man on the radio announced that it would be midnight in 15 seconds.

"Everybody ready for the new decade?" Somebody called out into the group. Alice glanced at Jasper nervously, but there was a gleam of anticipation in her eyes.

_Ten..._

Alice grabbed Jasper hand, and smiled at him.

_Nine..._

She glanced over at Clara, who was beckoning John over.

_Eight..._

John came over to their small group, grinning at them. "You guys ready?"

_Seven..._

Alice let out a breath that she didn't know she had been holding. "Too us," Jasper whispered in her ear, "and to the Cullens."

_Six...Five..._

"Four! Three! Two! One!"

Jasper leaned forward suddenly and kissed Alice full on the lips as the clock struck midnight, raising his glass with everyone else as the group erupted into cheers. Somebody blew a noisemaker, but Alice wasn't paying attention to them anymore.

Her eyes widened before Alice slowly let them slip shut, raising her glass slowly as she kept her lips firmly pressed against Jasper's own.

"Happy New Year!" Everybody cheered loudly.

Alice slowly pulled away and looked up at Jasper before taking his hand and bringing the glass down to her lips as Jasper did the same.

"To the new year, and the new decade" Alice whispered, knowing Jasper would hear her.

They glanced at each other out of the corner of their eye's once more before tipping their heads back and drinking the champagne.

It didn't matter that they drank it all. Or the fact that it tasted disgusting. It was a new year, and they were going to bring it in, in style.

****

_More than seven pages, not even counting this author's note. It's so bittersweet. One more chapter and an epilogue after this, and I'm happy, but sad at the same time. It's my first multi-chaptered fic that I've really put my effort into, and I'll be sad to see it go._

_So poll, I can't decide on where the Cullens should be. It can't be Hoquiam (a.k.a. Forks, and sorry if I spelled that wrong) or Denali, so if you have any suggestions, just leave it in a review, I'd really appreciate it._

_LiL AliCe 21: Hm, well, I don't really know, I guess. Probably because there's something sweet behind Jasper's backstory (how Alice made all the difference), and the fact that we don't hear about them as much as, say, Bella and Edward. I seem to like the side pairings more than the main one normally. But I also just love Alice and Jasper as my favorite characters, so it's automatically my favorite pairing I guess : )_

_Reviews are much appreciated._


	23. Unconventional

Jasper wandered down the empty street, glancing at all the shops surrounding him. Alice was back at the apartment, working on something that he wasn't supposed to see.

Jasper had been doing nothing before, stuck in their bedroom, so finally he had just left to go hunting. He had gone the other day, though, so eventually he had just decided to wander through town.

A new, _boutique, _as Alice would call it, had opened up the day before just down the street, and Alice had been telling him about wanting to go in there.

Jasper quickened his pace until he was standing in front of the store where he stopped and stared at the display in the window.

One mannequin was dressed in a 'poodle skirt' and a plain white shirt, and a sign proclaimed it, 'The style of the fifties!'

That wasn't what caught his attention, though. Hanging on another mannequin that was off to the side and actually dressed for the weather, was a long black scarf that was purposely frayed on the ends that simply screamed, 'Alice!' to him.

Jasper stared at it long and hard and then glanced behind the two bodies. Only one person was currently in there. Surely he could handle that, right?

But Alice wasn't with him, and what if he messed up? Alice would be devastated...

What if he _could _do it, though? He hadn't had much interaction with humans alone, and he knew that Alice really would like the scarf. Her was getting ratty, and she had been talking of getting a new one for weeks.

_And it's only one human, _Jasper reasoned with himself.

Jasper bit his lip, but took in one deep breath before reaching out and grasping the handle.

He pulled the door open slowly, and bells chimed as he walked in, alerting the woman there that he had come in. The girl looked up at him from whatever it was that she had been doing.

"Hello!" she called brightly. "Can I help you?" she asked, and Jasper hesitated briefly before he nodded.

"How much for the scarf in the display?" he asked her, pointing to the two mannequins.

The girl smiled and went to get the scarf for him. "I think it's about seven dollars," she told him, grabbing the scarf off the doll and bringing it back to him. Glancing at the price tag, she looked up at him. "Sorry, it's six-fifty."

Jasper paused. He wasn't listening anymore as the door opened, a gust of wind blowing in from outside. The sales clerk's scent hit Jasper full in the face as her ponytail whipped around slightly. The girl laughed lightly, but Jasper wasn't paying attention to that. He could suddenly sense everything around him in that moment.

The bells as someone entered the store, the wisp of hair that danced on the sales girl's neck, her heartbeat as it pounded away, and the delicious scent of her blood. It pounded in his ears, and Jasper saw spots of red in his vision. He had never smelled anything so tempting...

Jasper finally observed what the girl looked like. She was a young thing, not older than seventeen, which would make it all the better for him.

Scenarios ran through his head. He could lean down, as she was so much shorter than he, as if he was going to kiss her. She would incline her head, naturally, and he could grab her and bite...

The other woman that had just entered would be terrified, but he would kill her quickly and her emotions would cease. The girl in front of him wouldn't have time to be afraid. And her blood would taste so could after abstaining for so long...no.

Jasper grappled at her emotions, so bright. She was...happy, and full of life.

Like Alice.

That though froze Jasper in his tracks. He stood there, motionless before abruptly he stopped breathing.

The second passed, and everybody went on, unaware of the struggle Jasper was facing.

"I'll be with you in a minute!" the girl called to the other customer before turning back to Jasper. "It's made with real cashmere," she continued, oblivious to how close she had just come to her death. "So would you like it?"

Jasper nodded, not trusting himself to breathe around her, though her scent still burned in his lungs. The girl smiled and continued talking. "It'll be seven-ten, with tax. Whoever you're buying this for, she'll love it."

She led him over to the cash register, and Jasper pulled the money out of his wallet automatically.

"Thank you," she told him as she handed him the bag with the scarf in it. Jasper nodded in reply and took the bag carefully from her without touching her hand before hurrying to the door to get out of there as quickly as possible.

As his hand touched the doorknob, Jasper hesitated for a split second before he pulled the door open. Wind slapped against his face, and Jasper took a deep breath.

"I'm sorry," he finally said quietly before he walked out of the store and let the door close behind him.

Jasper walked down the street quickly until he was away from the store before finally he stopped and slumped against the wall, closing his eyes. He took in deep gulps of air, and thought about how close he had just come to killing again.

He didn't _want _to be a monster. And how close had he come today?

He had made it, though. It had been hard, being alone with that girl so near, but he had done it. She had smelled, _amazing_ though. No human's scent had ever been so overpowering. Maybe it was because he hadn't tasted human blood in so long, but regardless...

He hoped that he never had to go through that again.

He had been scared. Jasper would never tell anyone that, but he had been. Alice would have been so disappointed, though she would never tell him that, and he would have ruined everything that they had there.

Sighing, Jasper stood up finally and glanced back down the way he had come before he started walking again. He still had something he needed to do before he could head back to the apartment.

There was a flower shop just down the street, and he was hoping that they would have the flowers that he was looking for.

He walked quickly, smiling slightly as the wind whipped around him, crisp and clean. He passed the grocery store with a slight grimace—they would have to go within the week if they wanted to keep up human pretenses.

Jasper finally stopped in front of the flower shop and glanced inside at the wide range of blossoming plants. Taking a deep breath breath, he pulled open the door and walked in, hoping for an easier time than before.

The scent of various flowers overwhelmed him, and it almost masked the cashier's scent completely.

There seemed to be a hundred different flowers in the room. Roses, daisies, tulips, chrysanthemums, poppies, and...

Bluebells.

Jasper smiled and gathered a dozen in his arms and took them up to the counter where an old man was standing.

"Good choice," he noted, and Jasper nodded slightly. The man gave Jasper the price and he paid it quickly, hoping to head back home soon. "Ribbon?" he suddenly heard the man ask. Jasper glanced at him fleetingly to see the man holding up a pale pink ribbon in one hand, the flowers, wrapped in cellophane, in the other.

Jasper nodded. "Sure."

"Would you like them in a box?" Jasper paused then shook his head, so the man smiled and handed the flowers to him. "Your girl's gonna like those," he told Jasper as he prepared to leave.

Jasper smiled slightly and nodded. "Thank you," he said before finally turning and leaving the flower shop.

Back out on the street, Jasper strode purposefully back to the apartment. Alice would just kick him out again if he was too early, but she was probably done with whatever she was working on by now.

He was sure that Alice already knew about her gifts, but he was still looking forward to giving them to her.

Besides the flowers and scarf, though, Jasper was planning on taking Alice dancing again. He knew how much she loved to go dancing, and he had to admit that he loved it too.

It was almost night as Jasper got to their apartment building and quickly climbed the stairs. The sun would be down in a few minutes, not that they would make much difference with the clouds covering both the sun and moon.

Jasper got to the apartment and quietly entered, knowing Alice would know he was back anyway.

He walked into the living room to find Alice standing there in anticipation, clutching something to her chest that he couldn't see. It was a canvas, that much he knew, but of what?

Jasper held the bag and flowers out to her, and Alice beamed at him. Setting the canvas down (so he still couldn't see it) Alice took them from him and opened the bag, squealing as she saw the scarf.

"It's so soft!" she exclaimed, wrapping it around her neck in excitement despite the fact that she didn't need it. She smiled down at the flowers too, burying her face in the petals. "I'm going to put them in water," she finally told Jasper, looking up at him and moving toward the kitchen. "Don't peek!"

Jasper glanced sideways at the picture, but stayed dutifully where he was.

Alice came back moments later, carrying a vase and placing the flowers in it simultaneously.

"Okay," she finally told him, placing the vase on the coffee table, "You can look at it now." She turned the painting around, and Jasper stared at it in shock.

"That...you painted that? Me?" he asked in shock, staring at the painting.

It was him. Staring off into space at something they couldn't see, a frown tugging at his lips.

Alice stood in the background, watching this painting Jasper with sadness on her face.

"This is amazing, Alice," he breathed, "It looks like a professional did it, it really does. I love it."

Alice smiled and wrapped her arms around him, looking up at him. "I'm glad. Happy anniversary, Jasper."

Jasper smiled softly and wrapped his arms around her in an embrace. "Happy anniversary, Alice."

****

"So I was thinking," Alice began as she spun around to walk backwards so she could face Jasper, "if we just buy food in smaller quantities and come just a _little _more frequently, then we should save money. We can just say that we go out to eat more."

Jasper rolled his eyes. "Part of me thinks you just _like _going grocery shopping."

"Well it's kind of fun," Alice defended, "even if it smells like dirt. Very unappetizing dirt. Honestly, I don't get what's so appealing about that food."

"I don't really think that humans find our diet all too appetizing, either," Jasper pointed out.

Alice laughed and spun back around to walk forward, her dress twirling around as she clasped her hands behind her back and smiled. The grocery store was just ahead, and Alice started skipping slightly.

"Do you know what we need?" Alice asked Jasper as they walked inside the store.

Jasper shrugged. He didn't really pay attention to what humans ate.

Normally he was the one doing the eating...Jasper shook his head of the thought and continued to follow Alice through the aisles.

Alice herself was swinging a basket back and forth carefully, a loaf of bread already in it.

She stopped halfway down the aisle to pick up a box of crackers. Holding it up for Jasper to see, she asked, "Would you like to get them?"

Jasper shrugged as he neared where she was standing. "Sure," he agreed, "it's not like we'll be eating them."

Alice nodded when she suddenly froze, dropping the box to the ground where it bounced against the floor before coming to lie at her feet.

_"Rosalie," Carlisle sighed._

_"No," the blonde girl refused. "I'm not moving. Carlisle, it's not a big deal. So this kid's blood is a _little _more tempting for me than usual, I'm not going to do anything."_

_"Rosalie, stop being so self-centered and start thinking about your family for once. This about more than just you! What happens if you bite this kid on accident one day at school? The Quileutes will be on us faster than we can leave, and they'll track us," Edward told her furoiusly._

_Rosalie glowered at Edward, and he glared right back. "You know what, Edward—"_

_"Enough," Carlisle interrupted sternly, glancing between his two children. "Rosalie, I'm sorry, but Edward's right. We shouldn't take the risk."_

_Rosalie glared at her family and stomped up the stairs._

Alice looked up sharply to meet Jasper's gaze in excitement. "Jasper I saw them! I saw the Cullens, I know where they are!"

People glanced over at them strangely, and Jasper grabbed Alice's hands in his own to calm her down with his gift.

"That's wonderful Alice, really," he murmured soothingly, "but we need to finish here at the grocery store first."

"Jasper don't you get what this means? We'll be leaving here soon, anyway, they're moving!"

Jasper sighed. "Did you see where they were moving?"

"Well, no," Alice admitted grudgingly.

"Then we should finish up here, first," Jasper interrupted.

Alice sighed and frowned, but she nodded anyway. "Fine, but can we hurry, _please?"_

Jasper laughed quietly. "As quickly as we can, Alice. Well, as fast as _humanly _possible." Despite being antsy to leave, Alice smiled up at him.

"Thanks," she told him sincerely, "Now let's get shopping!"

****

"Okay, Alice," Jasper finally said once they left the grocery store and made their way back to the apartment. "do you know when this is all going to happen?"

Alice hesitated. "Not exactly. But it's going to be soon, within the next few days."

Jasper stopped her and turned Alice so she was facing him, staring up into his eyes. "Fine. Can you search for their location?" Alice nodded. Jasper sighed but continued speaking. "Alright. Go ahead and try to find them."

Alice glanced nervously at Jasper but nodded and closed her eyes, sifting through the various futures she could see happening. Jasper watched Alice as she flitted from vision to vision, her face scrunched up in concentration.

She suddenly stopped, and her lips moved quickly, mouthing something in the vision. It ended, and Alice turned to look at Jasper with a determined shine in her eyes. "I know where they are," she told him.

Jasper nodded. "Come on, we'll head home, if you want to leave soon. How long do you think it will take us to get there?"

Alice shrugged. "Depends on how fast we drive."

They headed home quickly, Alice immediately anxious to get on the road.

"Alice calm down," Jasper told her as they got into the apartment, taking the groceries to the kitchen and then coming back out to the living room where she was standing. "We have to pack and get ready, and figure out where they're house will be. I get that you know the city, but do you have the house yet?" Alice shook her head. "Alright. You just...keep searching. I'll start getting our things ready."

Alice nodded breathlessly. "Thank you Jasper," she muttered to him before continuing on to herself. "I found them," she whispered in amazement.

****

Alice smiled as she loaded the last box they were taking with them into the car before turning to look at Jasper expectantly.

The Cullens had moved just the other day, and they were finally setting off to meet them. It was still early morning, and they had said goodbye to their friends the day before, knowing that they would probably never see them again.

"Are you ready?" she asked as he stared up at their apartment building.

This was his chance. He could tell her here and now that he didn't want to go, that this wasn't for him, and Alice would stay here with him. It would crush her, but she would unload the car and take it back up to their apartment with him, if that was what he really wanted.

Jasper sighed. "Yeah."

Alice smiled softly and moved to stand next to him, taking his hand in her own. "Thank you," she murmured to him softly.

Jasper was silent for a long moment before finally he turned to look at her. "Let's go find those Cullens of yours."

Alice beamed, and they turned away from their old building together.

She had to admit, she would miss this place, and all the friends she had made, but this part of their lives was over, and it was time to move on. For both of them.

Alice slid into the passenger seat, and Jasper started the car, glancing at Alice. They pulled onto the street and drove away without looking back.

Alice stared out the front window, not really seeing. The Cullens were so close...

They got on the main highway, deserted in the early hour. Alice closed her eyes tightly and leaned back into her seat. _Please, oh please, don't let this be a mistake, _she thought to herself.

Jasper grasped her hand, and Alice turned to look at him, smiling.

"Portland, Oregon, here we come," she whispered.

****

_This chapter felt a little rushed too me, but I couldn't really think of a way to extend it without making it drag on too much..._

_*Sniffle* I'm going to miss this story. Only one more chapter/epilogue-thingy left. I call it an epilogue, because this story focuses on Alice and Jasper's life, not searching for the Cullens, but really, it's just their first meeting, and a little more._

_Reviews really are loved._


	24. Epilogue

Alice grabbed Jasper's hand tightly as she stared up at the house in front of them.

They were here.

It had been a long trip (though maybe that had something to do with Alice's anticipation), but they were finally _here._

"Are you ready?" Jasper asked as they sat in the car in silence.

Alice held her breath for a moment before she finally nodded. "Yes," she breathed. They unlinked hands, and Jasper got out of the car while Alice sat there for a few seconds longer, her hand resting on the door handle.

She _was _ready. She really was. But what if they didn't like her? Or Jasper? What would they do then?

Jasper came over to her side of the car and opened the door for her, sensing her fears. "Don't worry," he murmured, "they'll love you. How could they not?"

Alice stared up at the man that had been with her for the past two years, always reassuring her that they would find the Cullens one day. And now they had. Alice nodded slightly and took his outstretched hand.

They walked slowly up the gravel driveway before they finally reached the porch, where they took one stair at a time.

Her anticipation was building. Staring at the door, Alice fidgeted as she thought about what this really meant. _They're just behind that door, _her mind screamed at her.

Taking in one more deep breath, Alice stepped forward and knocked on the door before moving back to stand next to Jasper for comfort.

She heard someone come to the door and her smile widened when she saw sweet Esme standing there, looking at the two of them in confusion. She eyed them carefully at first, but she smiled when she saw their golden eyes. "Hello," she began, "Can I help you?"

Before Jasper could stop her, Alice stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Esme in a hug. "I'm so happy that I finally get to meet you Esme!" she squealed.

Esme's eyes widened, but she didn't say anything about the unorthodox greeting. "Well! Uh, come in," she stood to the side and opened the door wider for them to come in, watching Jasper nervously as he stopped next to her, battle scars covering his body.

"Hello," he greeted lowly, "I'm sorry about Alice, she's just very excited about this."

Esme blinked and stared at him in confusion before she finally nodded slowly. "It's alright, dear," she told him, caught off guard with how polite he was.

"Esme, who's here—" Rosalie began as she looked down at everybody from the top of the stairs.

"Rosalie! I'm so happy to get to meet you finally! We're going to be the best of sisters!"

Rosalie frowned delicately, obviously not expecting such a strange pixie to be greeting her by name.

"Esme did you...?" she trailed off.

Esme shook her head, looking amused. "No, she knew my name too, it's not just you."

Jasper moved to stand next to Alice, trying to calm her down, but she seemed to be too wound up. "Jasper stop it! I don't want to be calm right now!"

Rosalie and Esme shared a glance as Carlisle came out of his office. "Hello!" he greeted politely, surprised to see to unfamiliar vampires standing there in his living room. "What can I do for you?"

"Carlisle! I've been looking forward to meeting you for—oomph!" Jasper placed his hand over Alice's mouth, chuckling nervously. She was going to blow it if she didn't stop.

"Alice, you're scaring them," he warned her. "They haven't told you their names, you _shouldn't know," _he hissed before looking back at Carlisle and letting go of Alice. "Sorry. My name is Jasper, and this is Alice. Sorry if we scared any of you, it's just, we've been trying to find you for a while now. Alice has a gift, she's clairvoyant."

Esme gasped in surprise, and Rosalie hissed, while Carlisle just looked at the two of them in interest. "And how can we help you?"

Jasper gave Alice a warning glance, but she just rolled her eyes, bounding up to Carlisle. "You don't know it yet, but we're going to be family."

Jasper's eyes widened in shock. "Alice!"

Alice turned to look at Jasper innocently. "What? They're going to find out anyway."

"That's not the point, Alice!"

Carlisle observed them closely. "Well, I guess we'll have to talk it over with the entire family. I don't suppose you know about..?"

Alice grinned. "Edward and Emmett? Yep!" she chirped.

Carlisle nodded faintly. "Right. I think I'm going to call the hospital and let them know that I can't come in today." He left to go back to his office, glancing briefly at Esme and Rosalie before going in the back.

Esme was smiling and already talking to Alice, while Jasper stood nearby, carefully watching Esme and Rosalie in case they decided to attack. He didn't think they would, their emotions were so much calmer than he was used to for a vampire. Rosalie just observed them all from the bottom step on the stairs. "How long have you been looking for us?" Esme asked curiously.

"Well, I've been looking for you guys for about thirty years, but I found Jasper two years ago, and he's been helping ever since."

Jasper gave a curt nod, and Esme looked at them in shock again before she recovered and smiled again. "We're going to need to expand..." she decided thoughtfully.

"Esme!" Rosalie exclaimed. "We don't even know if they're staying with us."

Esme laughed and wrapped Alice in a hug, looking at Rosalie. "No," she disagreed, "I have a feeling they are."

"Oh," Alice finally added as an afterthought. "We'll have to move Edward's things to the garage until we do. His room has the best view..."

Though she didn't let them see it, Rosalie had a small smile on her face at the thought.

****

Edward and Emmett had gone on a big hunting trip and they were going to be gone for three days. In that time, Alice and Jasper had settled in like they had always lived with the Cullens. They had gotten Edward's room, just like Alice had said they would, and Edward's things were in the garage until they could expand the house.

Alice, Esme, and Rosalie had already gone on a girls only shopping trip, while Jasper and Carlisle had stayed back and talked something they both enjoyed—philosophy.

But surprisingly, it was _Rosalie and Jasper _that had bonded the most. Rosalie had avoided them for the first day until she found Jasper in the study one day, reading one of her favorite books. They had surprisingly grown quickly close after that.

Finally though, Edward and Emmett were coming home. Home, to a family that was finally complete.

In fact, Alice thought as she stared out the window in excitement, "They'll be here in a minute and thirty seconds!" she told Jasper and her new family. _Family._

One minute and thirty seconds later, she smiled as she heard Edward stomp into the house through the garage.

"Who moved all my things to the garage?!"

Alice grinned and bounded down the stairs to finally meet him in person. "Hi Edward!"

Jasper smiled slightly and followed after her at a slower pace, watching in amusement as Alice hugged Edward while Edward watched her in shock. Carlisle and Esme stood nearby in the entrance to the kitchen where Carlisle had his arm wrapped around Esme.

Rosalie had greeted Emmett and was quietly explaining to him the tiny pixie that was currently hugging Edward.

They were really _home._

_****_

_It's over! I'm so sad! I can't believe it, thank you guys so, _so, _much for believing in me and helping me to finish the story, it probably would have been abandoned half way through without all of you. Really, you don't know how much I appreciate it. I know it's kind of short, but this just seemed like the right place to stop._

_Special thanks to everyone that reviewed every (or almost every) chapter, sorry I can't list by name but it would get very long : ) I always looked forward to reading everybody's reviews, that was one of the best parts about writing this story._

_I hope you all enjoyed it!_

_~Tally_


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